Shittim

Shittim (meaning acacias), also called Abel-shittim (Numbers 33:49), was the final encampment of Israel in the plains of Moab before crossing the Jordan into Canaan. Situated east of the Jordan, likely in the valley of the Wadi el-Kefrein, it was from here that Joshua sent two spies to Jericho (Joshua 2:1) and from here that Israel crossed over (Joshua 3:1). The site thus marks the transition from the wilderness wandering to the conquest.

Shittim was also the scene of Israel's catastrophic sin with the Moabite and Midianite women, who enticed the Israelites to worship Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:1–9). This episode resulted in a plague that killed 24,000 people, arrested only when Phinehas son of Eleazar executed a brazen Israelite and the Midianite woman he had brought into the camp. The prophet Micah later contrasted Balak's plot at Shittim with what the LORD did from Shittim to Gilgal as an invitation to remember God's saving acts (Micah 6:5).