Shittah
Bible Usage:
- shittah used once.
- Bible Reference: Isaiah 41:19
Dictionaries:
- Included in Eastons: No
- Included in Hitchcocks: No
- Included in Naves: No
- Included in Smiths: No
- Included in Websters: Yes
- Included in Strongs: No
- Included in Thayers: No
- Included in BDB: No
SHIT'TAH, noun In Scripture, a sort of precious wood of which the tables, altars and
(Heb. shittah, the thorny), is without doubt correctly referred to some species of Acacia , of which three or four kinds occur in the Bible lands. The woof of this tree
perhaps the Acacia seyal is more definitely signified
was extensively employed in the construction of the tabernacle. See Exodus 25,26,36,37,38. (This tree is sometimes three or four feet in diameter (Tristram). The wood is close-grained and hard, of a fine orange-brown color, and admirably adapted to cabinet work.
ED.) The A. seyal is very common in some parts of the peninsula of Sinai. It yields the well-known substance called gum arabic, which is obtained by incisions in the bark, but it is impossible to say whether the ancient Jews were acquainted with its use. From the tangled thicket into which the stem of this tree expands, Stanley well remarks that hence is to be traced the use of the plural form of the Heb. noun shittim , the singular number occurring once only in the Bible. This acacia must not be confounded with the tree (Robinia pseudo-acacia) popularly known by this name in England, which is a North American plant, and belongs to a different genus and suborder. The true acacias belong to the order Leguminos' , sub-order Mimose' .
(Isaiah 41:19; R.V., "acacia tree"). Shittah wood was employed in making the various parts of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and must therefore have been indigenous in the desert in which the Israelites wandered. It was the acacia or mimosa (Acacia Nilotica and A. seyal). "The wild acacia (Mimosa Nilotica), under the name of sunt, everywhere represents the seneh, or senna, of the burning bush. A slightly different form of the tree, equally common under the name of seyal, is the ancient 'shittah,' or, as more usually expressed in the plural form, the 'shittim,' of which the tabernacle was made." Stanley's Sinai, etc. (Exodus 25:10, 13, 23, 28).
Bible Usage:
- shittah used once.
- Bible Reference: Isaiah 41:19
Dictionaries:
- Included in Eastons: No
- Included in Hitchcocks: No
- Included in Naves: No
- Included in Smiths: No
- Included in Websters: Yes
- Included in Strongs: No
- Included in Thayers: No
- Included in BDB: No