Shittah-tree is Hebrew for acacia. Acacia albida, Acacia tortilis and Acacia iraqensis can be found in the Sinai desert and the Jordan valley.

Shittah wood was employed in making the various parts of the Tabernacle and of the Ark of the covenant in the wilderness. It was the acacia or mimosa (Acacia Nilotica and A. seyal).

"The wild acacia (Mimosa nilotica), under the name of sunt, everywhere represents the seneh, or senna, of the burning bush. A slightly different form of the tree, equally common under the name of seyal, is the ancient shittah, or, as more usually expressed in the plural form, the shittim, of which the Tabernacle was made."

Reference

  • Stanley's Sinai, etc. (Ex. 25:10, 13, 23, 28).