SHITTAH intw.) and SiTITTIM (ow) SHITTIM (1:311:Oltirl, The Acacias ; Sept. Zan, occur in several passages of Exodus, and indicate the kind of wood which was employed in making various parts of the tabernacle 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. 19 it is mentioned as a tree worthy of planting. According to some it was some valuable foreign wood.
But there does not appear any proof that shit inn was an imported wood, and it is more probable that it was the wood of a tree of the desert. Ro senmiiller (after Celsius, ii. p. 499) says : The He brew name, which is properly shintah, was formed from the Egyptian word sham', the double t being substituted for the nt, for the sake of sound and an easier pronunciation.' The Arabs also call it t..) kart or karat; written also kharad. The Arabs pronounce the Egyptian name sent. This is a tree of the genus Acacia, found both in Egypt and in the deserts of Arabia (Prosper Alpinus, De Plantis 2Egyfiti, p. 6). The acacia tree,' says Dr. Shaw, being by much the largest and most common tree in these deserts (Arabia Petrsea), 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 shittah tree is, in Is. xli. 19, joined with the myrtle and other fragrant shrubs.' Mr. Kitt° says : The required
species is found in either the Acacia gummifera, or in the A. Seyel, 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 A. Sgel 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 fie quently mention the Sgel as occurring in the same situations. It is very probable therefore that it yielded the shittim wood of Scripture.--j. F. R.
reiv), the place where the Israelites encamped for the last time before they crossed the Jordan (Num. xxv. ; comp. Micah vi. 5), and from which Joshua sent spies to spy the land as far as Jericho (Josh.
r). It was in the Arboth of Moab, at the foot of the mountain-range Abarim, and immediately under Nebo and opposite to Jericho (Dent xxxii. 49). Hence it is to be looked for near the point where the Wady Hesban enters the plains of Moab, probably to the south of this wady. According to Josephus ("Mag. iv. 8. r) the town of Abila was afterwards built on the site of Shittim, 6o stadia from the Jordan (Keil, Comment. on Yosh. p. 79). The full name seems to have been Abel Hashshiltim (which see).—W. L. A.