CHITTAH (kfetah). See 1.VttEAT.
CHITTrhl or RITTIM (1delim or ;cretin)), (Heb. 7-77;, kh:t-tcem', kit-tee-ten:', an is lander).
A branch of the descendants of Javan, the son of Japheth (Gen. x:4). The plural termination of Chittim, and other names in this ethnograph ical survey (verses 13, 14), renders it probable that the term son must be understood, not in the strict sense of that relation. On the author ity of Josephus, who is followed by Epiphanies and Jerome, it has been generally admitted that the Chittim migrated from Phoenicia to Cyprus and founded there the town of Citium, the mod ern Chitti. 'Chethimus possessed the island of Chethima, which is now called Cyprus, and from this, all islands and maritime places are called Chethim by the Hebrews' (Joseph. Antiq. i:6, sec. I ). Cicero, it may be remarked, speaks of the Citians as a Phoenician colony (De Finibus, iv:2o). Some passages in the prophets (Ezek. xxvii :6; Is. xxiii :1, 12) imply an intimate con nection between Chittim and Tyre. At a later period the name was applied to the Macedonians Mace. i and viii :5). Hengstenberg has lately endeavored to prove that in every passage in the Old Testament where the word occurs it means Cyprus, or the Cyprians. On Num. xxiv:
24. he remarks that the invaders of Ashur and Eber are said to come not from Chittim, but from the coast of Chittim, that being the track of ves sels coming from the west of Palestine. In Dan. xi:3o, he contends that the use of the absolute instead of the construct, denotes a less inti mate connection with the following word, and that the phrase means, like that in Ralaam's pro phecy (to which he supposes the prophet alludes), ships sailing along the coast of Chittim. The Vulgate translates Chittim. in this passage, Ro 'rialtos, an interpretation adopted by several of the ancient Jewish and Christian writers. After a careful examination, Chittim seems to he a name of large signification (such as our Levant). ap plied to the islands and coasts of the Mediter ranean, in a loose sense, without fixing the par ticular part. though particular and different parts of the whole are probably in most cases to be understood.