Shiloh

Genesis 49:10

Genesis 49:10 says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a scholar from among his descendants until Shiloh arrives and his will be an assemblage of nations.”

King David, from the tribe of Judah, is promised by HASHEM that his descendants will hold the scepter. Judah's privilege to rule is reaffirmed no matter what turmoil might come to the children of Israel. A temporary rebuke of Bnei Yisroel involving the removal of kingship in the land doesn’t negate HASHEM's promise. When Bnei Yisroel come back to the land and restore the Temple there will be a descendant of David on the throne to rule, since the scepter will still belong to Judah. At that time, the blessing made to the tribe of Judah will rise to its full intended purpose when all the nations serve HASHEM and respect the king of Israel.

Many Christians project five New Testament prophecies into this verse. Firstly, they presume that there must be a continuous line of kings on the throne until ‘Shiloh arrives’ and that when this consecutive line is broken, the scepter will then depart from Judah. They claim that when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D./C.E, the scepter departed from Judah and that their deity is the one who now eternally holds the scepter and the kingship. This line of reasoning does not account for the Babylonian exile, which occurred around the time of the first Temple's destruction hundreds of years prior and created a temporary break in the kingship. After this disruption in rule, the throne was reestablished and a king from the tribe of Judah was reinstated until the second Temple's destruction.. The current exile doesn't eliminate this guarantee to the tribe of Judah. This present disruption is temporary as was the disruption during the previous exile.

Christians believe that their deity has descended from the tribe of Judah, is an acceptable candidate to sit on the Davidic throne, has the "obedience of the people (John 10:16)," fulfills the requirements of the Messiah (Shiloh), and came before the descendants of David supposedly lost their identity. Each of these points is erroneous. Not only did he fail at ruling Israel and leave all of the messianic hopes unfulfilled, he is an unacceptable candidate for the throne. The tribe of Judah is not lost. They have kept records of their ancestry.

The whole objective of this verse is to affirm the tribe of Judah as the owner and possessor of the throne. This verse communicates that the scepter belongs to the tribe of Judah, regardless of G-d’s temporary rebuke and removal of a king from the throne.