Shittim

dispersion of the gospel to the Gentile islands of the sea, yet from subsequent prophecies to the same amount, when illustrated by each other, I confess that I am inclined to believe that some great maritime power, such as our own, may be fairly referred to in the several prophecies to this amount. I beg the reader before he goes farther to consult Num 24:24. Isa. ix. 107. Matt. 4: 13 - 16. Ezek. chap. 27. And 28. And Dan. 4: 13 - 6. Ezek. chap. 27, and 28, and Dan. xi. 30. No doubt, The Tyrus spoken of is mystical aswell as other places mentioned in those prophecies. The limits to be observed in this Poor Man’s Concordance will not allow me to enlarge.

The sacred wood which was much used in the tabernacle, of which moderns know but little.

SITTIM, SITTAH, שתים , שתח , Exo 25:5; Exo 25:10; Exo 25:13; Exo 25:23; Exo 25:28; Exo 26:26; Exo 26:32; Exo 26:37; Exo 27:1; Exo 27:6; Exo 30:5; Exo 35:7; Exo 35:24; Exo 36:20; Exo 36:31; Exo 36:36; Exo 37:1; Exo 37:4; Exo 37:10; Exo 37:15; Exo 37:25; Exo 37:28; Exo 38:1; Exo 38:6; Deu 10:3; Isa 41:19. What particular species of wood this is, interpreters are not agreed. The LXX render ασηπτα ξυλα, incorruptible wood. St. Jerom says, the shittim wood grows in the deserts of Arabia, and is like white thorn, as to its colour and leaves: but the tree is so large as to furnish very long planks. The wood is hard, tough, smooth, and extremely beautiful. It is thought that this wood is the black acacia, because that, it is said, is the most common tree growing in the deserts of Arabia; and agrees with what the Scriptures say of the shittim wood. The acacia vera grows abundantly in Egypt, in places far from the sea; in the mountains of Sinai, near the Red Sea, and in the deserts. It is of the size of a large mulberry tree. The spreading branches and larger limbs are armed with thorns which grow three together; the bark is rough; the leaves are oblong, and stand opposite each other; the flowers, though sometimes white, are generally of a bright yellow; and the fruit, which resembles a bean, is contained in pods like those of the lupin. “The acacia tree,” says Dr. Shaw, “being by much the largest and most common tree in these deserts, Arabia Petraea, 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 Isa 41:19, joined with the myrtle and other fragrant shrubs.”

Shit´tim, a spot in the plain of Moab, east of the Dead Sea, where the Israelites formed their last encampment before passing the Jordan (Num 25:1; comp. Mic 6:5) [WANDERING].

Shit’tim. (the acacias). The place of Israel’s encampment, between the conquest of the TransJordanic highlands, and the passage of the Jordan. Num 25:1; Num 33:49; Jos 2:1; Jos 3:1; Mic 6:5. Its full name appears to be given in the first of these passage -- Abel has-Shittim, "the meadow, or moist place, of the acacias", it was "in the Arboth-moab, by Jordan-Jericho," Num 22:1; Num 26:3; Num 31:12; Num 33:48-49. That is to say, it was in the Arabah or Jordan valley, opposite Jericho.

(See SHITTAH; ABEL SHITTIM.)

Shittim (shĭt’tim), acacias. The scene of the sin with the Midianites, and of its terrible punishment, Num 25:1-18; Num 31:1-12; the sending forth of the spies to Jericho; and the final preparation before crossing the Jordan. Jos 2:1-24.

[Shit’tim]

Plain on the east of the Jordan, where the Israelites encamped before they crossed the Jordan. The name signifies ’acacias.’ Num 25:1; Jos 2:1; Jos 3:1; Joe 3:18; Mic 6:5. In Num 33:49 it is called ABEL-SHITTIM, q.v.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Schulim Ochser

Valley north of the Dead Sea on the left bank of the Jordan, in which the children of Israel, before their entry into the Promised Land, cohabited with the daughters of Moab and Midian. The Arabic name of the valley is Wady Sitti Maryam, or Wady al-Nar. According to the Biblical reports, it was in this valley that the Israelites were detained by a plague which raged until the guilty Israelites had been hanged, and until Zimri, the son of Salu, who had committed immoralities with a Midianitish woman, had been slain by Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (Num. xxv.). It was from this valley, furthermore, that Joshua, somewhat later, sent out the two spies to Jericho (Josh. ii. 1) and the Israelites went forward to the Jordan (Josh iii. 1). The prophet Micah (vi. 5) depicts the ingratitude of Israel toward Yhwh by recalling what happenedat Shittim, and Joel (iii. 18) prophesies that the fountain which comes forth from the Temple shall water the valley of Shittim. Driver, in "Bible for Schools and Colleges," explains the place mentioned in II Sam. xv. 23 as being identical with the Kidron, in proof of this assertion quoting Ezek. xlvii. 1-12 and Zech. xiv. 8, in which merely the "naḥal" is mentioned.

According to Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni and Num. R. xxv. 1, the Shittim River is identical with the river whose waters deprave those who drink them and from which the Sodomites had drunk. With reference to the transgression of Israel it is called "Siṭṭim" (that which leads to crime) instead of "Shiṭṭim" (the acacia).

SHITTIM.—1. The name of the last encampment of the Israelites, on the east of the Jordan opposite Jericho. There the Israelites began to intermarry with Moabites (Num 25:1 ff.), and from there Joshua sent out the spies to Jericho (Jos 2:1; Jos 3:1). The name means ‘acacias,’ and the place is called in Num 33:49 Abel-shittim, or ‘Meadow of acacias.’ Josephus (Ant. IV. viii. 1, v. i. 1) identifies the place with Abila, which he says is 7¹/2 Roman miles east of the Jordan, and which Jerome says was 6 miles east of it. Several modern scholars identify Abila with Khirbet Kefrên at the entrance of the Wady Kefrên, at the base of the mountains of Moab.

2. Joel’s reference to the ‘Valley of Shittim’ (Joe 3:18) must refer to some valley leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (cf. Eze 47:1 ff.)—perhaps the ‘Valley of the brook Kidron,’ the modern Wady en-Nâr. It is certainly not the same as No. 1, although confused with it by Ochser (JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] xi. 297 f.). The reference to Shittim in Mic 6:5—‘from Shittim to Gilgal’—is geographically unintelligible, and is rightly thought by many scholars to be a gloss.

George A. Barton.

shit´im (השּׁטּים, ha-shiṭṭı̄m, “the acacias”; Σαττείν, Satteı́n):

(1) This marked the last camping-ground of Israel before they crossed the Jordan to begin the conquest of Western Palestine. Here it was that the people fell into the snare set for them by the satanic counsel of Balaam, who thus brought upon them greater evil than all his prohibited curses could have done (Num 25:1 ff; Num 31:16). In Num 33:49 it is called Abel-shittim. It was from Shittim that Joshua sent the spies to view out the land and Jericho (Jos 2:1); and from this point the host moved forward to the river (Jos 3:1). The place is mentioned by Micah in a passage of some difficulty (Jos 6:5): after “what Balaam the son of Beor answered,” perhaps some such phrase as “remember what I did” has fallen out. This would then be a reference to the display of divine power in arresting the flow of Jordan until the host had safely crossed. Josephus places the camp “near Jordan where the city Abila now stands, a place full of palm trees” (Ant., IV, viii, 1). Eusebius, Onomasticon says Shittim was near to Mt. Peor (Fogor). It may possibly be identical with Khirbet el-Kefrain, about 6 miles South of the Jordan, on the lip of Wâdy Seisebān, where there are many acacias.

(2) In Joe 3:18 we read of the valley of Shittim which is to be watered by a fountain coming forth of the house of the Lord. It must therefore be sought on the West of the Jordan. The waters from the Jerusalem district are carried to the Dead Sea down the Wâdy which continues the Brook Kidron: Wâdy en-Nār. The acacia is found plentifully in the lower reaches of this valley, which may possibly be intended by the prophet.

Exo 25:10 (c) It probably represents the deathless, incorruptible body of the Lord JESUS in His humanity. His body could not die except as He deliberately dismissed His Spirit from it. Shittim wood is a wood that resists decay and thus represents the human body of the Saviour.