Shittah tree
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Shittah tree[1] or the plural "shittim" [2] was used in the Tanakh to refer to the acacia (Hebrew: שטה). Acacia albida, Acacia seyal, Acacia tortilis and Acacia iraqensis can be found growing wild in the Sinai desert and the Jordan valley.
In the Exodus, the ancient Israelites were commanded to use shittah wood to make various parts of the Tabernacle and of the Ark of the Covenant. This was most likely the Acacia 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."[3]
See also
- Sideroxylon lanuginosum, a North American native plant sharing common names with the Biblical shittah tree
References
- ↑ Isaiah 41:19
- ↑ Exodus 25:10 & 23, 26:15
- ↑ Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Sinai and Palestine.
Further reading
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "acacia". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.- Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Sinai and Palestine.
- Exodus chapter 25, verses 10, 13, 23, and 28.
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