SHITTAH (shtt'tah), (itch. and SHITTIM (shit'tim), (Ilcb. shzt-teent'i.
(1) These words occur in several passages of Exodus, and indicate the kind of wood which was employed in making the various parts of the tab ernacle while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. It is mentioned also as forming part of the offerings, as in Exod. xxv :5, 'rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins and shittim wood and in xxxv :7, 24. In Is. xli ag, it is mentioned as a tree worthy of planting. 'I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree,' etc. (2) It is exceedingly probable that the tree referred to belongs to the Acacia, found both in Egypt and in the deserts of Arabia. 'The acacia tree,' says Dr. Shaw, 'be ing by much the largest and most common tree in these deserts (Arabia Petrma), we have some reason to conjecture that the shittim wood was the wood of the acacia, especially as its flowers are of an excellent smell, for the shittim tree is, in Is. xli :19, joined with the myrtle and other fra
grant shruhs.' Mr. Kitto says: 'The required species is found in either the Acacia gummifera, or in the .1. Seyal, or rather in both. They both grow abundantly in the valleys of that region in which the Israelites wandered for forty years, and both supply products which must have rendered them of much value to the Israelites. We think the probability is that the .4. Seyal supplied the shittim wood, if, indeed, the name did not denote acacia wood in general. This tree grows from fifteen to twenty feet in height.' Robinson and Smith frequently mention the Seyal as occurring in the same situations. It is very probable thete fore that it yielded the shittim wood of Scripture.
J. F. R.