Shittah And Shittim

Shittah And Shittim

A valuable kind of wood, of which Moses made the greater part of the tables, altars, and planks belonging to the tabernacle. Jerome says, "The wood is hard, tough, smooth, and without knots, and extremely beautiful; so that the rich and curious make screws of it for their presses. It does not grow in cultivated places, nor in any other places of the Roman Empire, but only in the deserts of Arabia." It is thought he means the black acacia, the Acacia Seyal, which is found in the deserts of Arabia, and the wood of which is very common about Mount Sinai and the mountains which border on the Red Sea, and is so hard and solid as to be almost incorruptible.