SETTIM
Two biblical localities, so named from the acacias (*Sittim*; Egyptian *Snt*, later *Sonte*; Assyrian *samt*; acacias planted there; often places were named from trees (especially oaks and similar: *elah*, *elôn*). acacia (v.) had provided the wood (*dé Sittim*, Vulgate *ligna setim*) for the tabernacle and the cultic furnishings (26 times in *Ex.* 25, 5-30, 5 and 35, 7-38, 6; *Deut.* 10, 3).
S., always with the article (*has-sittim* and the acacias), was the Moabite district east of the Jordan where Israel made its last stop before entering the Promised Land; there it defiled itself by uniting with the Moabite and Midianite women and with them giving itself over to the obscene worship of Baal of Mount Peor (v. *BEELPHEGOR*), for which 24,000 Israelites were struck by a plague, and there Phinehas distinguished himself by zeal, for which God granted him as a reward “his covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (*Num.* 25, 1-18). It was called *Abel* (v.) *S.* “in the steppes of Moab” (*ibid.* 33, 49; Septuagint *Belga* cod. B, *Bélgastrum* cod. A). From there spies were sent to Jericho, which lay opposite; from there, after a prolonged stay, Israel moved to cross the Jordan (*Jos.* 2, 1; 3, 1; Vulg. *Settim*). To the deeds of Balaam “from S. (*Num.* 25, 1) as far as Gilgal (*Jos.* 4, 19 sqq.)” does *Mi.* 6, 5 allude, though “critics” say these two geographical names are interpolated.
The “torrent of S.” (*nâhal has-sittim*; Vulg. *torrens spinarum*) in *Isai* 3, 18 (a messianic passage) seems to be the continuation of the Kidron (*Wâdi en-nâr*) that carries the waters of the Temple toward the Dead Sea, as *Ez.* 47, 1-12; *Zach.* 14, 8; *Apoc.* 22, 1 suggest. Perhaps it is the modern Wâdi es-sant (“valley of the acacia”).