It is true that some Jews do indeed feel how persuasive and conclusive this passage really is. This is why they hunt up all sorts of weird ways of getting around it. But if you will notice, they only ensnare themselves. For example, they say that in this instance shiloh does not signify the Messiah or Christ, and that therefore this passage does not carry any weight with them. It matters not whether he is called Messiah or shiloh; we are concerned not with the name, but with the person, with the fact that he shall appear when the scepter is taken away from Judah. No such person can be found except Jesus Christ; otherwise, the passage is false. He will be no mere cobbler or tailor, but a lord to whom the nations will be gathered; that is, his kingdom will be more glorious than the scepter ever was before, as has been said.
Equally futile is another subterfuge, when they say: The nations which are gathered to him may well be only the Jewish nation, and shiloh means a lord. Be that as it may; I will not quarrel over what shiloh means, although it does seem to me that it signifies a man who is prosperous, well-to-do, has plenty, and is generous. From this comes the lit fie word salve, which means copia [riches], felicitas [good fortune], abundantia [prosperity], an ample sufficiency of all good things, as it says in Psalm 122[:7], "Et abundantia in turribus suis" ["and prosperity within your palaces"]; that is, everything is full and sufficient and prospering, so that in German I might call shiloh "well-being."
