Shittim names two very different things. As a place, it is where Israel stayed when the people “began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab” (Numbers 25:1), a sad chapter in the wilderness years. As a wood, it is what the craftsmen use for the sacred furniture: poles of shittim wood overlaid with gold, and the altar of burnt offering itself (Exodus 25:13; 38:1). One word, one scene of failure and one of patient, faithful work. Exodus 25 and 38 give the wood; Numbers 25 gives the camp.
4 verses
And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.
And he made the staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.
And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Acacias, also called “Abel-shittim” (Num. 33:49), a plain or valley in the land of Moab where the Israelites were encamped after their two victories over Sihon and Og, at the close of their desert wanderings, and from which Joshua sent forth two spies (q.v.) “secretly” to “view” the land and Jericho (Josh. 2:1).
William Smith, 1884
(the acacias), the place of Israel’s encampment between the conquest of the transjordanic highlands and the passage of the Jordan. (Numbers 25:1; 33:49; Joshua 2:1; 3:1; Micah 6:5) Its full name appears to be given in the first of these passage --Abel has-Shittim, "the meadow, or moist place, of the acacias." it was "in the Arboth-moab, by Jordan-Jericho," (Numb 22:1; 26:3; 31:12; 33:48,49 That is to say, it was in the Arabah or Jordan valley, opposite Jericho.