E. Hull.
SHISHA.— See Shavsha.
SHISHAK (pe^T [in 1 K li"^, Keth. pf^o, J^lri p;''!;'j, ZovaaK(e)lii.). — Shishak is Sheshonk I., the first king of the 22nd or Bubastite Dynasty. He belonged to an important family of chiefs of Libyan mercenaries, who by degrees attained to very high position. His grandtather married a princess named Mehtenusecht, doubtless of the 21st or Tanite Dynasty. The successors of Sheshonk were much attached to Bubastis, and his dynasty is named Bubastite by Manetho ; but it is doubtful whether he himself had much con- nexion with that city. In his 21st year he began building a new court in the great temple of Karnak, and close to it caused to be sculptured a representation of himself sacrificing figures sym- bolic of the conquered cities in Palestine. In all, 156 place - names were thus recorded, and most of them are still legible. There are few important cities amongst them. They include Rabbath and Hapharaim in Issachar, and Mahanaim on the ea-st of the Jordan, besides towns in Juda-a. From the biblical account (1 K 14^), it had been con- cluded that Shishak attacked only the kingdom of Rehoboam and spared tliat of Jeroboam, who had lived many years in exUe in Egjpt ; but this interpretation is not necessary. Since Ramses lU. no Pliaraoli had ventured to transport an army across the eastern desert and to attack Palestine. Later, even Taharka and Psammetichus did not go so far ; onlj' Necho went farther. But Sheshonk's expedition was insignificant compared to the ex- peditions of the 18th dynasty. For the absence of the title ' Pharaoh ' in the biblical record see above, vol. iii. p. 819.
LiTERATDRB. — For Shishak's campaign against Judah see W. .Ma\ Miiller, Asien u. Europa, 166 ff.; Blau in ZVMG xv. ■i.'ua.; .Meyer, Gesch. i. 385 f.; Stade, Gesch. u 363 f.; Maspero, StruqrjU of the ^atums, 772 ff.; Driver in Hogarth's Authority andArchieolugy.&TL F. Ll. GRIFFITH.
SHITRAI (n??' KSthtbh, •air ^ir6; B'Affaprais, A Luc. XcLTpai). — A Sharonite who was over king David's herds that fed in SHARON, 1 Ch 27*.
* Lavard, yiiirveh, ii. 383.
♦ Layard, vol. ii. 384, 385.
i KV ' In the sliips ol their rejoicing.' i Ac 27".
SHITTAH TREE
SHOBAI
507
SHITTAH TREE {n-^ s/iit/dh, jri-Jot, spirta, Is 41" i:V 'acacia tree'); SHITTIM WOOD (;-:;;-sy dzf-shittim, (i\a iaarra, liqna sctim, Ex i)'- '"■ '^ 26"- » 27'«, Dt 10' UV 'acacia wood').— ^ViiVW/i is modified from shintdh, as hitidh, ' wlieat,' from hintdh. The cognate Arab, equivalent for shintdh is sont, a name identical with the old Ejjyp. name of this tree, and is, like it, generic fur Acacia, but particularly applied to A. Silotirn, Del. The desert acacia, of which the Ark of the Covenant, and the boards, tables, ete. of the Tabernacle were made, is no doubt j4. Scyal, Del., and A. tor/ His, Hayne, if the two be not, as we suspect, varieties of the same species. Both are called sei/i/dl. Sciiil means ' torrent,' and prob. the ellipsis ' tree ' should be supplied- It is the torrent tree, i.e. the char- acteristic tree of the desert wadis of Sinai, et-Tih, and the Dead Sea. The conius of these trees resembles that of the apple. It is about 15-2j ft. high, and a little broader than its height. It has stitf, thorny branches, bipinnate leaves with leaf- lets 1-2 lines long, and A line broad, and more or less spirally twisted, necklace-shape pods, 3-4 in. long. lt.s wood is heavier than water, exceedingly hard, of tine grain, the sap-wood yellow, the heart- wood brown. It is not attacked by insects. It was therefore eminently suited for furniture such as that for which it was employed, in a climiite where insects commit such ravages as in the desert and in Palestine. These trees must have been very numerous in ancient times, perhaps filling most of the desert valleys, and growin-j in clefts of the rocks on the now bare mountain sides. Even now, after they have been so extensively cut by the charcoal burners, there are large numbers of them. They form quite a characteristic feature of the desert landscape. The trunks are now not infrequently 2 ft. thick, and old trees may have been much thicker, quite suUiciently so to supply planks 10 cubits long and IJ wide (Ex 36-')- If any dilliculty existed on this point, it would be easily met oy supposing that the planks were joined. Arab, carpenters do this now very cleverly in Egypt and Syria. Besides the wood, so valuable on account of its durability and the excellent charcoal which can be niaile from it, the tree yields the famous ' gum arable ' in considerable quantities. Its astringent bark is used for tanning yellow leather.
A number of places were named from this tree, as Shittim (Jos 2' al.), perhaps the modem Ghor es:S(iisabdn, where there are still plenty of acacia trees, and Abfl-Shittim (Nu 3^*"), i.e. the I'lain of the Acaciaa, which is the .same as the above. The Valley (Srjj ' wady ') of Shittim (Jl 3 (4) '») may have been the lower part of the Wddij en-Ndr, the continuation of Kidron, into which flows the water from tlip neighbourhood of Jerusalem. This, as all the va'leys debouching on to the Dead Sea, would nat'irrtlly have acacia trees growing in it.