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Bible Encyclopedias
Shittah
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (שַׁטָּה; plur..] שַׁטַּי ) means in Chaldee a line or series. Thus, the passage in Isaiah 30:8, חקה על ספר, "Noted in a book," is rendered by the Targum, ועל שטיןדספר רשו, "Register it on the lines of the book." The passage in the Song of Solomon 5:13, "His cheeks are like beds of balsam," is rendered]בעשר שטיןדמיןלשטי גנת בסמא כתיב, i.e. "were written (viz. the two tables of stone which he gave to his people) in ten rows, resembling the rows or beds in the garden of balsam." The Masorites denote with Shittah a series or catalog of words — a register of things of the same import, as a number of verses, pairs, words, which are alike either in vowel oints or letters. Thus, they noted down a list of pairs of words which occur once, but the first of which commences with a Lamed, viz., לאחזת עול (Genesis 17:8), באהלו לאשר (Exodus 16:16); or they give us a list of thirty-eight words which respectively have in one instance only the accent on the penultima, as רבה (Genesis 18:20), יצחק (Genesis 21:6), וספר (Leviticus 15:13), etc.; or they give a list of words which, on the contrary, occur only once with the accent on the ultima, as הבה (Genesis 29:21), מתה (Genesis 30:1), ירא (Genesis 41:33), etc. See Buxtorf, Tiberias, seu Comnmentarius Massoreticus, p. 273; Levita, Massoreth ha-Massoreth (ed. Ginsburg), p. 205, 210; Frensdorff, Massora Magna, p. 381 sq.; id. Ochla-we-Ochla, § 20. p. 36; § 372, p. 61, 171; § 373, p. 61, 172. (B.P.)
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Shittah'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/s/shittah.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
