ix.

24.
But, notwithstanding these overwhelming proofs, the stubborn Jews refuse to be confounded! on the contrary, they in fact laugh at Christians for being so easily imposed upon.
The prophecy concerning Shiloh, the Jews acknowledge, refers to their Messiah.

But they do not allow that it defines or limits the time of his coming.
And that it in fact does not, will be perfectly, evident to all who will look at the place in the Hebrew bible, which they will find pointed to read not--"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come," &c.; but thus--"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, for ever; for Shiloh shall come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be." So that the prophecy does not intimate that the Messiah should come before the sceptre be departed from Judah; but that it should not depart for ever, but shall be restored when Shiloh comes.

This is the plain and obvious sense of the prophecy; and, moreover, is the only one that is consistent with historical fact.

For, in truth, the sceptre had departed from Judah several hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth was born.