In three places the Scripture plainly explains the cause why [the tabernacle] forsook Shiloh. In the first, generally, [it] says [that there] had been sins, and the wickedness and improbity of the Israelite people (Jer. 7, v. 12): “Go,” says the Lord, “to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt; and see what I did to it for the malice of my people Israel.” In the second, the general cause is put [as] the same; but specifically one kind of sin, and that indeed the gravest, [is] touched [upon] — idolatry (Psalm 77, v. 56): “And they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies; and they turned away, and kept not the covenant; just as their fathers, [they] were turned into a perverse purpose. They stirred him to anger on their hills, and provoked him to jealousy with their graven images. And he rejected the tabernacle [of] Shiloh, his tabernacle, where he dwelt among men.” In the third place, another kind of sin — which clung to certain priests — is noted (1 Sam. ch. 2, 3, & 4), where I explain this very [thing] at greater length. Some other [reasons] can [be sought] from the place into which — after the brief sojourn and pilgrimage at Nobe — the tabernacle emigrated (2 Chron. 1): namely, from the tribe of Juda, that is, from Jerusalem, from Mount Sion, from the city of David. And all these [the Psalm] intimated, and comprehended [them] under the one [heading] of God’s benevolence and election — the same Psalm 77, v. 67 & following: “The Lord rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,” for the aforesaid causes, “but he chose the tribe of Juda, Mount Sion, which he loved; and he built, like [that] of unicorns, his sanctuary in the land [earth], which he founded unto the ages.” St. Jerome, in the Epitaph of Paula: “Why should I relate Shiloh, in which the altar, [now] destroyed, is today shown?” And in [commenting on] Sophonias [Zephaniah] ch. 1: “Shiloh was the tabernacle, and the ark of the Lord. Scarcely the foundations of the altar are shown.” But here we discern [that] in the sanctity of places, temples, and other similar things, confidence [is] not so to be placed that we may sin licentiously, [or that] we may believe [our] sins will go unpunished, or [that] God’s worship [is] so bound to certain sacred buildings, cities, and places that, from them, to our penalty, with great
(col. 1181)
[…continued from col. 1180.] increase of the divine glory, with the benefit of other nations, and with our own conspicuous disgrace and detriment, [his worship] cannot be transferred away.