SETTIM. - Two biblical localities, so named from the acacias (šittīm; Egyptian šist, later fonte; Assyrian samtu) planted there; not infrequently places were named after trees (especially oaks and the like: 'ēlah, 'ēlōn). The acacia (v.) had furnished the wood ('dše šittīm, Vulgate ligna setim) for the tabernacle and the furnishings of worship (26 times in Ex. 25, 5-30, 5 and 35, 7-38, 6; Deut. 10, 3).
S., always with the article (haf-šittīm "the acacias"), was the Moabite region, east of the Jordan, where Israel made its last stop before entering the Promised Land; there it defiled itself by joining with the Moabite and Midianite women, and with them giving itself over to the obscene worship of Baal of Mount Phegor (v. BEELPHEGOR), for which 24,000 Israelites were struck down by a plague, and Phinehas distinguished himself by his zeal, to whom as a reward God granted his "covenant of an everlasting priesthood" (Num. 25, 1-18). It was called Abel (v.) S. "in the plains of Moab" (ibid. 33, 49; Septuagint Βέλων cod. B, βελοκτίμ cod. A). From there the spies were sent to Jericho, which stood opposite; from there, after a prolonged stay, Israel set out to cross the Jordan (Ios. 2, 1; 3, 1; Vulg. Setim). To the work of Balaam "from S. (Num. 25, 1) to Gilgal (Ios. 4, 19 ff.)" alludes Mi. 6, 5, where however the "critics" say these two geographical names are interpolated.
The "torrent of S." (nāhal haf-šittīm; Vulg. torrens spinarum) in Iosl. 3, 18 (a messianic passage) seems to be the continuation of the Kidron (Wādi en-nār) which carries the waters of the Temple toward the Dead Sea, as Ex. 47, 1-12; Zach. 14, 8; Apec. 22, 1 hint. Perhaps it is the present-day Wādi es-sant ("valley of the acacia").