Exodus 25:5 (WEB)
rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Exodus 25:5 (KJV)
And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
Exodus 25:5 in the Septuagint (Brenton's translation)
and rams' skins dyed red, and blue skins, and incorruptible wood,
Key words
- עֲצֵי שִׁטִּיםatsey shittim · Hebrew
- 'shittim wood' — acacia, a hard, durable desert wood regarded as sacred in Egypt.
- ξύλα ἄσηπταxyla asēpta · Greek (LXX)
- 'incorruptible wood' — the Greek translators rendered acacia as wood that does not rot. Josephus says the same: the ark was of wood 'naturally strong and could not be corrupted' (Antiquities 3.134).
Why it matters
The ark was to be built of acacia, which the Septuagint calls 'incorruptible wood.' Pitre singles this out as the third of the Ark's five features (p 46) and returns to it for the Assumption: Pius XII cited the Fathers who saw the Ark 'built of incorruptible wood' as a type of Mary's body, 'preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb' (Munificentissimus Deus 26, p 63). If the old Ark was incorruptible, how much more the new.