ACACIA. – A tree of the mimosa family, *Mimosa nilotica* of Linnaeus or *Acacia arabica*; it is the *spina aegyptiaca* of the ancients. Very widespread in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, it is rare in Palestine where it is found only near the Jordan. It yields gum arabic. Its wood (used by the Egyptians for the construction of sacred ships) is extremely hard, very light, and almost incorruptible. Yellowish in color, it becomes black like ebony over time.
In Hebrew the name is used in the plural *šittim* (*šittâh* only in Is. 41:19); from the Egyptian *šndt*, later *sonte*, probably meaning “thorn.” The ancient translators were unaware of its precise meaning: the Septuagint has *xulon asgnaton* “incorruptible wood”; the Vulgate, *ligna setim*.
The boards and columns of the Tabernacle, the Ark (v.) of the Covenant, the altars, the table of the bread of the Presence, and the poles for carrying these sacred objects were made of acacia (Ex. 25–38; Deut. 10). The fact that Moses used for the cultic furnishings not the noble cedar but the only suitable wood available in the Sinai desert—one almost unknown in Palestine—confirms the historicity of the sacred books of the Pentateuch and rules out the notion that the Tabernacle is an idealization of Solomon’s Temple.