the Sixth Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Shittim
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or SHITTIM . 1 . The name of the last encampment of the Israelites, on the east of the Jordan opposite Jericho. There the Israelites began to intermarry with Moabites ( Numbers 25:1 ff.), and from there Joshua sent out the spies to Jericho ( Joshua 2:1; Joshua 3:1 ). The name means ‘acacias,’ and the place is called in Numbers 33:49 Abel-shittim , or ‘Meadow of acacias.’ Josephus ( Ant. IV. viii. 1, v. i. 1) identifies the place with Abila , which he says is 7 1 / 2 Roman miles east of the Jordan, and which Jerome says was 6 miles east of it. Several modern scholars identify Abila with Khirbet Kefrên at the entrance of the Wady Kefrên , at the base of the mountains of Moab.
2 . Joel’s reference to the ‘Valley of Shittim’ ( Joel 3:18 ) must refer to some valley leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (cf. Ezekiel 47:1 ff.) perhaps the ‘Valley of the brook Kidron,’ the modern Wady en-Nâr . It is certainly not the same as No. 1, although confused with it by Ochser ( JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] xi. 297 f.). The reference to Shittim in Micah 6:5 ‘from Shittim to Gilgal’ is geographically unintelligible, and is rightly thought by many scholars to be a gloss.
George A. Barton.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Shittim'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/s/shittim.html. 1909.
