What is "shittah tree"

Shittah \Shit"tah\, Shittah tree \Shit"tah tree`\, n. [Heb. shitt[=a]h, pl. shitt[=i]m.] A tree that furnished the precious wood of which the ark, tables, altars, boards, etc., of the Jewish tabernacle were made; -- now believed to have been the wood of the Acacia Seyal, which is hard, fine grained, and yellowish brown in color.

n. source of a wood mentioned frequently in the Bible; probably a species of Acacia [syn: shittah]

Shittah tree 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.

During the Exodus, the ancient Israelites employed shittah wood in making the various parts of the Tabernacle and of the Ark of the Covenant. It was the acacia or mimosa ( Acacia nilotica and A. 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."