Shittah tree

{{Short description|Acacia-like tree species mentioned in the Hebrew Bible}}File:Trees and shrubs. Shittim tree at Engedi. (Ancacia Seyal Del.) LOC matpc.14961.tif

Shittah treeIsaiah 41:19. ({{langx|he|שִׁטָּה}}) or the plural "shittim"Exodus 25:10 & 23, 26:15. was used in the Tanakh to refer to trees belonging to the genera Vachellia and Faidherbia (both formerly classed in Acacia). Faidherbia albida, Vachellia seyal, Vachellia tortilis, and Vachellia gerrardii can be found growing wild in the Sinai Desert and the Jordan River Valley.File:Tissark.jpg

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 Vachellia seyal{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOFUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA31-IA4|title=The Plants of the Bible. Trees and Shrubs|last=Balfour|first=John Hutton|publisher=T. Nelson & Sons|year=1857|pages=31}} or Vachellia tortilis.{{Cite web|url=https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Acacia_tortilis.html|title = Acacia tortilis}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Acaciatortilis_page.htm|title=Plants of the Bible: Umbrella Thorn Acacia}}

"The wild acacia (Vachellia 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."Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Sinai and Palestine.