https://www.lds.org/manual/jesus-the-ch ... 5?lang=eng
" Jacob’s Prophecy Concerning “Shiloh.”—The prediction of the patriarch Jacob—that the sceptre should not depart from Judah before the coming of Shiloh—has given rise to much disputation among Bible students. Some insist that “Shiloh” is the name of a place and not that of a person. That there was a place known by that name is beyond question (see Joshua 18:1; 19:51; 21:2; 22:9; 1 Samuel 1:3; Jeremiah 7:12); but the name occurring in Genesis 49:10 is plainly that of a person. It should be known that the use of the word in the King James or authorised version of the Bible is held to be correct by many eminent authorities. Thus, in Dummelow’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, we read: “This verse has always been regarded by both Jews and Christians as a remarkable prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. … On the rendering given above, the whole verse foretells that Judah would retain authority until the advent of the rightful ruler, the Messiah, to whom all peoples would gather. And, broadly speaking, it may be said that the last traces of Jewish legislative power (as vested in the Sanhedrin) did not disappear until the coming of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, from which time His kingdom was set up among men.”
Adam Clarke, in his exhaustive Bible Commentary, briefly analyzes the objections urged against the admissibility of this passage as applying to the Messiah’s advent, and dismisses them all as unfounded. His conclusion as to the meaning of the passage is thus worded: “Judah shall continue a distinct tribe until the Messiah shall come; and it did so; and after His coming it was confounded with the others, so that all distinction has been ever since lost.”
Prof. Douglas, as cited in Smith’s Dictionary, “claims that something of Judah’s sceptre still remained, a total eclipse being no proof that the day is at an end—that the proper fulfillment of the prophecy did not begin till David’s time, and is consummated in Christ according to Luke 1:32, 33.”
The accepted meaning of the word by derivation is “Peaceable,” and this is applicable to the attributes of the Christ, who in Isaiah 9:6, is designated the Prince of Peace.
Eusebius, who lived between 260 and 339 A.D., and is known in ecclesiastical history as Bishop of Cæsarea, wrote: “At the time that Herod was king, who was the first foreigner that reigned over the Jewish people, the prophecy recorded by Moses received it fulfillment, viz. ‘That a prince should not fail of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until He should come for whom it is reserved, the expectation of nations.’” (The quoted passage is founded on the Septuagint rendering of Genesis 49:10.)
Some critics have held that in Jacob’s use of the word “Shiloh” he did not intend it as a name or proper noun at all. The writer of the article “Shiloh” in Cassell’s Bible Dictionary says: “The preponderance of evidence is in favor of the Messianic interpretation, but opinions are very divided respecting the retention of the word ‘Shiloh’ as a proper name. … Notwithstanding all the objections that are urged against it being so regarded, we are of the opinion that it is rightly considered to be a proper name, and that the English version represents the true sense of the passage. We recommend those who wish to enter more fully into a question which cannot well be discussed without Hebrew criticism, to the excellent notes upon Genesis 49:10 in the ‘Commentary on the Pentateuch’ by Keil and Delitzsch. Here the text is thus rendered: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, till Shiloh come, and the willing obedience of the nations be to him.”
“Notwithstanding the slight put upon the Messianic interpretation by some writers, even those from whom we should scarcely expect it, we see this explanation confirmed and not weakened in the events of history. The text is not taken to mean that Judah should at no time be without a royal ruler of his own, but that the regal power should not finally cease from Judah until Shiloh had come. The objections founded on the Babylonian captivity, and similar intermissions, are of no force, because it is the complete and final termination which is pointed out, and that only happened after the time of Christ.”