Shiloh lies a little off the road, on a knoll rising out of a secluded dell, "on the north side of Beth-el, on the east of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah" (Judg. xxi. 19). Here Joshua set up the tabernacle, made the allotment of Canaan to the tribes, dismissed them with his benediction to their possessions. It became the first great sanctuary; priests' houses sprang up round it, till it was called "the temple" (1 Sam. iii. 3). Here Eli lived and died, Samuel ministered before the Lord, and an annual festival was held in honour of the ark (Judg. xxi. 19–24). After the capture of the ark by the Philistines, Shiloh declined; but Ahijah prophesied there (1 Kings xiv. 1–17). Its destruction was made a warning to Jerusalem (Jer. vii. 12–14; xxvi. 6).