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). acacia (v.) had supplied 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 final encampment before entering the Promised Land; there it defiled itself by joining the Moabite and Midianite women and, with them, giving itself over to the obscene worship of Baal of Mount Phegor (v. BEELPHEGOR), and there 24,000 Israelites were killed by a plague, while Phinees distinguished himself through his 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 Βέλων cod. B, βελοκτίμ cod. A). From there the spies were sent to Jericho, which lay opposite; from there, after a prolonged stay, Israel set out to cross the Jordan (Ios. 2, 1; 3, 1; Vulg. Setim). To Balaam’s activity, “from S. (Num. 25, 1) to Gilgal (Ios. 4, 19 sqq.),” Mi. 6, 5 refers, although the “critics” say that 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 Cedron (Wādi en-nār), which carries the waters of the Temple toward the Dead Sea, as suggested by Ex. 47, 1-12; Zach. 14, 8; Apec. 22, 1. It may be the present-day Wādi es-sant (“valley of the acacia”).