🔼The name Shiloah: Summary
- Meaning
- Sent
- Etymology
- From the verb שלח (shalah), to send or let go.
🔼The name Shiloah in the Bible
Shiloah is the name of a pool outside Jerusalem mentioned by Isaiah (8:6) and by Nehemiah as Shelah (3:15). In the New Testament this name returns as Siloam (Luke 13:4, John 9:7).
🔼Etymology of the name Shiloah
The name Shiloah comes from the verb שלח (shalah) meaning send out or let go:
שלח
The verb שלח (shalah) means to send; to send whatever from messengers to arrows. It may even be used to describe a plant's offshoots or branches.
Noun שלח (shelah) refers to some kind of weapon, apparently a kind of missile. Plural noun שלוחים (shilluhim) means a send-off; a sending away or parting gift. Noun שלוחה (sheluha) refers to a shoot or branch. Noun משלח (mishlah) describes an outstretching of one's hand (i.e. an undertaking, or referring to the place where the letting go takes place). Noun משלוח (mishloah) also means an outstretching or a sending. Noun משלחת (mishlahat) describes a discharge from service, or a deputation.
The noun שלחן (shulhan) means table. It may actually stem from a whole other but identical verb that originally described the skinning an animal and stretching the hide out to dry. Possibly helped by the previous verb, this outstretching of a hide became attached to the laying down of a blanket (or indeed a hide) in order to stall goods on it (like the elements of a meal). When someone invented a table on legs the word to describe it was lifted from the old custom of picnicking on a blanket: a stretcher-outer.