SHITTAII
TOG
SHOA
Smith. But there is no evidence that this tree grows in Arabia. The .-1. :Sei/ul is the only timber tree of any size in the Arabian desert. It is a gnarled and very thorn V tree, somewhat like the solitary hawthorn in its habit of growth, but much larger. It flourishes in the driest situations, and is scattered over the whole of the binaitic jjeninsula. It is also abundant in the many ra- vines which open on the Dead Sea at Engedi, and all along its western shores. Several places on the eastern shore also derive their names from its presence. See Shittim. The wood is very hard and close-grained, very much resembling that of the yellow locust, of a line orange-brown color, with a darker heart, and admi- ralily adapted for cabinet-work. Its leaves are small and pinnate, and in spring it is covered with its round tufts of yellow blossoms, which grow in clusters round the branches, like little balls of fibre. The bark is yel- low and smooth, like that of the ailantus. It is power- fully astringent, and is used by the IJedawin for tanning yellow leather. The branches are often cut by the na- tives for making charcoal, but the camels browse on them when young and tender. The bark exudes a gum, the (jiini- arahic of commerce, not only by inci- sions, but spontaneously, which the Arabs collect for sale and occasionalh' employ for food. They also say that it allays thirst. See Tristram, Nat, Uist. of the Bible, p. 390 sq. See TiioiiN.
Acacia of the Dcffuit (Acacia Seyal), with Flower and Fiuit.
Shittah (i^^"^; plur- T^"^) means in Chaldee a line or .leries. Thus, the passage in Isa. xxx, 8, "EO PS npn, "Noted in a book," is rendered by the Targum C"i"J"i ^SOT "p-a bsi, "Register it on the lines of the book." The passage in the Song of Songs, v, 13, " His cheeks are like beds of Ijalsam," is rendered "p'^PS X';C2 r:; ^-w^ ■|'^t:1 "p;:'J ~C"3, i.e. "were writ- ten (viz. the two tables of stone which lie gave to his people) in ten rows, resembling the rows or beds in the garden of balsam." The INIasorites denote with Shittdh a series or catalogue of words — a register of things of the same import, as a number of verses, pairs, words, which are alike either in vowel-points or letters. Thus, they noted down a list of pairs of words which
occur once, but the first of which commences with a Lamed, viz. nblS TTnxb (Gen. xvii, 8), l^xb ■lbnX3 (Exod. xvi, 16); or thej'give us a list of thirty- eight words which respectively have in one instance only the accent on the penultima, as il3"1 (Gen. xviii, 20), pnai (xxi, 6), -IB01 (Lev. xv, 13), etc.; or they give a list of words which, on the contrary, occur only once with the accent on the ultima, as H^ri (Gen. xxix, •21), T^T-a (xxx, 1), X-l-i (xli, 33), etc. See Buxtorf, Tiberias, sen Commentarius Massoreticus, p. 273 ; Levita, Massvreth ha-Massoreth ( ed. Ginsburg), p. 205, 210; Frensdorff, Massora Maffiia, p. 381 sq. ; id. Ocfila-ve- Ochla, § 20. p. 36; § 372, p. 61, 171; § 373, p. 61, 172. (B. P.)
Shit'tim (Heb. with the art. hash-ShiUim, S'^Ii'i'il, the acacias; Sept. 'S.aTTtiv; in the Prophets, to. a\iH- va; ViUg. Settim, Abel-sutim'), a designation rather than proper name of at least two localities in Palestine. See Shittah.
1. The place of Israel's encampment between the conquest of the Transjordanic highlands and the pas- sage of the Jordan (Numb, xxxiii, 49; xxv, 1; Josh, ii, 1 ; iii, 1 ; Mic. vi, 5). Its full name appears to be given in the first of these passages — Abel ('?X) hash- Shitlim — " the meadow or moist place of the acacias." See Abel-shittim. It was "in the Arbotli-Moab, by Jordan-Jericho:" such is the ancient formula repeated over and over again (Numb, xxii, 1 ; xxvi, 3 ; xxxi, 12 ; xxxiii, 48, 49) ; that is to say, it was in the Arabah or Jordan valley, opposite Jericho, at that part of the Arabah which belonged to and bore the name of Moab, where the streams which descend from the eastern mountains and force their winding way through the sandy soil of the plain nourished a vast growth of the iSei/al, Sii7it, and iSitb- trees, such as is nourished by the streams of the Wady Kelt and the Ain Sultan on the opposite side of the river. See Moab. It was in the shade and the tropical heat of these acacia-groves that the people were seduced to the licentious rites of Baal- peor by the Midianites; but it was from the same spot that Moses sent forth the army, under the fierce Phine- has, which worked so fearful a retribution for that li- cense (xxxi, 1-12). It was from the camp at Shittim that Joshua sent out the spies across the river to Jeri- cho (Josh, ii, 1). — Smith. Tristram thinks that " the situation of Kefh-ein [of which he gives a view] at the northern margin of the oasis (the Ghor es-Seisam), and its marshy verdure, unmistakably identify it with Abel- shittim" (Land of Israel, p. 525).
2. A " valley" (5n3,?!ac^a^, wintcr-torrciit) of Shittim, or Wady Simt, as it would now be called, of Joel (iii, 18), can hardly be the same spot as that described above, as it must certainly have been west of the Jor- dan, and probably in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, al- though the particular vale cannot now be distinguished. Tlie name is jirobably to be regarded as an appellative — " acacia vale" denoting, perhaps, as that tree delights in a dry soil, an arid, unfruitful vale.