Shittah
(; plur..] ) means in Chaldee a line or series. Thus, the passage in Isa 30:8, , Noted in a book, is rendered by the Targum, , Register it on the lines of the book. The passage in the Son 5:13, His cheeks are like beds of balsam, is rendered] , i.e. were written (viz. the two tables of stone which he gave to his people) in ten rows, resembling the rows or beds in the garden of balsam. The Masorites denote with Shittah a series or catalog of words a register of things of the same import, as a number of verses, pairs, words, which are alike either in vowel oints 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., (Gen 17:8), (Exo 16:16); or they give us a list of thirty-eight words which respectively have in one instance only the accent on the penultima, as (Gen 18:20), (Gen 21:6), (Lev 15:13), etc.; or they give a list of words which, on the contrary, occur only once with the accent on the ultima, as (Gen 29:21), (Gen 30:1), (Gen 41:33), etc. See Buxtorf, Tiberias, seu Comnmentarius Massoreticus, p. 273; Levita, Massoreth ha-Massoreth (ed. Ginsburg), p. 205, 210; Frensdorff, Massora Magna, p. 381 sq.; id. Ochla-we-Ochla, 20. p. 36; 372, p. 61, 171; 373, p. 61, 172. (B.P.)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Shittah
The acacia, perhaps the seyal, or Nilotica or Arabica. The ark, the staves, the shewbread table and staves, and the altars of burnt offering and incense, were made of shittah (Exodus 25; 26; 36-38). Isaiah foretells (Isa 41:19) God’s planting it in the wilderness. The Egyptian saut. Many acacia trees grow on Sinai; they grow to the size of a mulberry tree. It was probably in the shittah or acacia that the flame appeared which did not burn the bush (Exodus 3). The gum arabic is obtained by incisions in the bark. The shittah boards of the tabernacle, ten cubits long and one and a half broad, were not necessarily one piece but formed of pieces joined together. The acacia is not that so-called in England, the Robinia pseudo acacia, a N. American plant; but of the order Leguminosae, Mimoseae. Hard and durable wood. If the ark had been made in Palestine, oak or cedar would have been its material; its being said to be made of shittah, the wood of the wilderness, is an undesigned propriety and mark of truth (Exo 25:10).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Shittah
Fig. 321Acacia Seyel
Shittah and Shittim occur in several passages of Exodus, and indicate the kind of wood which was employed in making various parts of the tabernacle while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. It is mentioned also as forming part of the offerings, as in Exo 25:5, ‘rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood;’ and in Exo 35:7; Exo 35:24. In Isa 41:19, it is mentioned as a tree worthy of planting: ‘I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree,’ etc. It is exceedingly probable that the tree referred to belongs to the Acacia, found both in Egypt and in the deserts of Arabia. ‘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.’ Dr. Kitto says: ‘The required species is found in either the Acacia gummifera, or in the A. Seyel, or rather in both. They both grow abundantly in the valleys of that region in which the Israelites wandered for forty years, and both supply products which must have rendered them of much value to the Israelites. We think the probability is, that the A. Seyel supplied the shittim wood, if, indeed, the name did not denote acacia wood in general. This tree grows from fifteen to twenty feet in height.’ Robinson and Smith frequently mention the Seyel as occurring in the same situations. It is very probable therefore that it yielded the shittim wood of Scripture.