Genesis 38:5 and 46:12 name him as a son of Yehudah.
The root means "to be safe, secure" (Job 3:26, 12:6, and a wonderful series of word-plays in Psalm 122:6/7), but there is a second meaning, probably a different root that happens to have the same letters, from the Chaldean word for "to wander", and used for sinning from ignorance or inadvertence in 2 Chronicles 29:11 and 2 Kings 4:28 - the Tanach usually uses the term SHEGAGAH for this (cf Leviticus 4, Numbers 15 et al)) A third meaning, "to draw out" or "spoil", is probably not a third root, but rather an error for a different root that happens to share two of its three letters: Shalal (שלל). Cf Exodus 15:9, Ruth 2:16, Ezekiel 26:12 et al.
One of the three roots also gives Shiloh (שִׁלֹה), sometimes spelled with a second letter Yud (שִׁילֹה). Because the Ark was kept there, Shiloh was the unofficial capital of Yisra-El before David created Yeru-Shala'im; it was situated about ten miles north of Beit-El, at what is today Khirbet Seilun or Tel Shilo. Not to be confused with Shilo'ach, the Pool of Siloam in Yeru-Shala'im.
Genesis 49:10 gives the first part of Ya'akov's blessing of Yehudah:
לֹא יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּי יָבֹא שִׁילֹה וְלוֹ יִקְּהַת עַמִּים
The sceptre shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until men come to Shiloh; and to him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
The text is problematic in English, largely because translations have for centuries rendered "ad ki yavo" as "as long as" rather than "until", which gives the precisely opposite meaning of the Yehudit. The Yehudit itself is problematic though, as it is unclear whether Shiloh here refers to the city where the Ohel Mo'ed was kept, and is therefore a spiritual message, or if Shiloh is to be understood figuratively as "peace" and "tranquility", as it is used in Isaiah 9:5 and elsewhere, as a prophecy of the Messiah? It is also debated whether Shiloh was in fact Shilo'a, or even Shilo, as in Jeremiah 41:5, and therefore from a different root altogether.
Not to be confused with Shelach (שלך), the son of Arphachshad (1 Chronicles 1:18)
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