Selah
SELAH
A musical term which occurs seventy-three times in the Psalms, and is found also in Hab 3:3,9,13 . It usually occurs at the end of a period or apostrophe, but sometimes at the end only of a clause. This difficult word, it is now generally believed, was a direction for a meditative pause in the singing of a psalm, during which perhaps there was an instrumental interlude.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Selah
(2Ki 14:7). SEE SELA.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Selah (2)
(Heb. id. ). This word, which is only found in the poetical books of the Old Test., occurs seventy-one times in the Psalms, and three times in Habakkuk. In sixteen psalms it is found once, in fifteen twice, in seven three times, and in one four times always at the end of a verse, except in Psa 55:19 [20]; Psa 57:3 [4], and Hab 3:3; Hab 3:9, where it is in the middle of a verse, though at the end of a clause. All the psalms in which it occurs, except eleven (3, 7, 24, 32, 48, 1, 82, 83, 87, 89, 143), have also the musical direction to the Chief Musician (comp. also Hab 3:19); and in these exceptions we find the words , mizmor (A.T. Psalm), Shiggaion, or Maschil, which sufficiently indicate that they were intended for music. Besides these, in the titles of the psalms in which Selah occurs, we meet with the musical terms Alamoth (46), Altaschith (57, 59, 75), Gittith (81, 84), Mahalath Leannoth (88), Michtam (57, 59, 60), Neginah (61), Neginoth (4, 54, 55, 67, 76; comp. Hab 3:19), and Shushan-eduth (60); and on this association alone might be formed a strong presumption that, like these, Selah itself is a term which had a meaning in the musical nomenclature of the Hebrews. What that meaning may have been is now a matter of pure conjecture. Of the many theories which have been framed, it is easier to say what is not likely to be the true one than to pronounce certainly upon what is.
1. The Versions. In the far greater number of instances the Targum renders the word by , forever; four times (Psa 32:4; Psa 32:7; Psa 39:11 [12]; 4 [6]) ; once (Psa 44:8 [9]) ; and (Psa 48:8 [9])
, with the same meaning, forever and ever. In Psa 49:13 [14] it has , for the world to come; in Psa 39:5 [6] , for the life everlasting; and in Psa 140:5 [6] , continually. This interpretation, which is the one adopted by the majority of Rabbinical writers, is purely traditional, and based upon no etymology whatever. It is followed by Aquila, who renders Selah ; by the editio quinta and editio sexta, which usually give respectively and ; by Symmachus ( ) and Theodotion ( ), in Habakkuk; by the reading of the Alex. MS. ( ) in Hab 3:13; by the Peshito-Syriac in Psa 3:8 [9], Psa 4:2 [3]; Psa 24:10, and Hab 3:13; and by Jerome, who has semper. In Psa 55:19 [20] , kedem selah, is rendered in the Peshito from before the world. That this rendering is manifestly inappropriate in some passages, as, for instance, Psa 21:2 [3]; Psa 32:4; Psa 81:7 [8], and Hab 3:3, and superfluous in others, as Psa 44:8 [9]; Psa 84:4 [5]; Psa 89:4 [5], was pointed out long since by Aben-Ezra. In the Psalms the uniform rendering of the Sept. is . Symmachus and Theodotion give the same, except in Psa 9:16 [17], where Theodotion has , and Psa 52:5 [7], where Symmachus has . In Hab 3:13 the Alex. MS. gives . In Psalms 38 (in the Sept.), 7; 80, 7 [8], is added in the Sept., and in Hab 3:7 in the Alex. MS. In Psalms 57 it is put at the end of Psa 57:2; and in Psa 3:8 [9]; Psa 24:10; Psa 88:10-11], it is omitted altogether. In all passages except those already referred to, in which it follows the Targum, the Peshito-Syriac has dips, an abbreviation for . This abbreviation is added in Psa 48:13 [14]; 1, 15 [16]; Psa 68:13 [14]; Psa 57:2; Psa 80:7 [8], at the end of the verse; and in Psa 52:3 in the middle of the verse after ; in Psalms 49 it is put after . in Psa 49:14 [15], and in Psalms 68, after in Psa 68:8 [9], and after in Psa 68:32 [33]. The Vulgate omits it entirely, while in Hab 3:3 the editio sexta and others give .
2. The Church Fathers. These generally adopt the rendering of the Sept. and other translators, although it is in every way as traditional as that of the Targum forever, and has no foundation in any known etymology. With regard to the meaning of itself, there are many opinions. Both Origen (Comm. ad Psalm, Opp. ed. Delarue, 2, 516) and Athanasius (Synops. Script. Sacr. 13) are silent upon this point. Eusebius of Caesarea (Proef. in Psalm) says it marked those passages in which the Holy Spirit ceased for a time to work upon the choir. Gregory of Nyssa (Tract. 2 in Psalm cap. 10) interprets it as a sudden lull in the midst of the psalmody, in order to receive anew the divine inspiration. Chrysostom (Opp. ed. Montfaucon, 5, 540) takes it to indicate the portion of the psalm which was given to another choir. Augustine (On Psalms 4) regards it as an interval of silence in the psalmody. Jerome (Ep. ad Marcellam) enumerates the various opinions which have been held upon the subject; that diapsalma denotes a change of meter, a cessation of the Spirit’s influence, or the beginning of another sense. Others, he says, regard it as indicating a difference of rhythm, and the silence of some kind of music in the choir; but for himself he falls back upon the version of Aquila, and renders Selah by semper, with a reference to the custom of the Jews to put at the end of their writings Amen, Selah, or Shalom. In his Commentary on Psalms 3 he is doubtful whether to regard it as simply a musical sign, or as indicating the perpetuity of the truth contained in the passage after which it is placed; so that, he says, wheresoever Selah (that is, diapsalma or semper) is put, there we may know that what follows, as well as what precedes, belongs not only to the present time, but to eternity. Theodoret (Proef. in Psalm) explains diapsalma by or (as Suidas), a change of the melody. On the whole, the rendering rather increases the difficulty, for it does not appear to be the true meaning of Selah, and its own signification is obscure.
3. Rabbinical Writers. The majority of these follow the Targum and the dictum of R. Eliezer (Talm. Babyl. Erubin, 5, 54) in rendering Selah forever; but Aben-Ezra (On Psa 3:3) showed that in some passages this rendering was inappropriate, and expressed his own opinion that Selah was a word of emphasis, used to give weight and importance to what was said, and to indicate its truth but the right explanation is that the meaning of Selah is like so it is,’ or thus,’ and the matter is true and right.’ Kimchi (Lex. s.v.) doubted whether it had any special meaning at all in connection with the sense of the passage in which it was found, and explained it as a musical term. He derives it from , to raise, elevate, with paragogic, and interprets it as signifying a raising or elevating the voice, as much as to say in this place there was an elevation of the voice in song.
4. Modern Writers. Among these there is the same diversity of opinion. Gesenius (Thesaur. s.v.) derives Selah from , salah, to suspend, of which he thinks it is the imperative Kal, with paragogic, , in pause . But this form is supported by no parallel instance. In accordance with his derivation, which is harsh, he interprets Selah to mean either suspend the voice, that is, be silent, a hint to the singers, or raise, elevate the stringed instruments. In either case he regards it as denoting a pause in the song, which was filled up by an interlude played by the choir of Levites. Ewald (Die Dichter des A.B. 1, 179) arrives at substantially the same result by a different process. He derives Selah from , salal, to rise, whence the substantive , which with paragogic becomes in pause (comp. , from root , Gen 14:10). So far as the form of the word is concerned, this derivation is more tenable than the former. Ewald regards the phrase Higgaion, Selah, in Psa 9:16 [17], as the full form, signifying music, strike up! an indication that the voices of the choir were to cease while the instruments alone came in. Hengstenberg follows Gesenius, De Wette, and others, in the rendering Pause! but refers it to the contents of the psalm, and understands it of the silence of the music in order to give room for quiet reflection. If this were the case, Selah at the end of a psalm would be superfluous. The same meaning of pause or end is arrived at by Frst (Handw. s.v.), who derives Selah from a root , salah, to cut off (a meaning which is perfectly arbitrary), whence the substantive , sel, which with paragogic becomes in pause , a form which is without parallel. While etymologists have recourse to such shifts as these, it can scarcely be expected that the true meaning of the word will be evolved by their investigations. Indeed, the question is as far from solution as ever. Beyond the fact that Selah is a musical term, we know absolutely nothing about it, and are entirely in the dark as to its meaning. Sommer (Bibl. Abhandl. 1, 1-84) has devoted an elaborate discourse to its explanation (translated in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1848, p. 66 sq.). After observing that Selah everywhere appears to mark critical moments in the religious consciousness of the Israelites, and that the music was employed to give expression to the energy of the poet’s sentiments on these occasions, he (p. 40) arrives at the conclusion that the word is used in those passages where, in the Temple Song, the choir of priests who stood opposite to the stage occupied by the Levites were to raise their trumpets (), and with the strong tones of this instrument mark the words just spoken, and bear them upwards to the hearing of Jehovah. Probably the Levitical minstrels supported this priestly intercessory music by vigorously striking their harps and psalteries; whence the Greek expression .
To this points, moreover, the fuller direction, Higgaion, Selah’ (Psa 9:16); the first word of which denotes the whirr of the stringed instruments (Psa 92:4), the other the raising of the trumpets, both of which were here to sound together. The less important Higgaion fell away, when the expression was abbreviated, and Selah alone remained. Dr. Davidson (Introd. to the Old Test. 2, 248) with good reason rejects this explanation as labored and artificial, though it is adopted by Keil in Hvernick’s Einleitung (3, 120-129). He shows that in some passages (as Psa 32:4-5; Psa 52:3; Psa 55:7-8) the playing of the priests on the trumpets would be unsuitable, and proposes the following as his own solution of the difficulty: The word denotes elevations or ascent, i.e. loud, clear. The music which commonly accompanied the singing was soft and feeble. In cases where it was to burst in more strongly during the silence of the song, Selah was the sign. At the end of a verse or strophe, where it commonly stands, the music may have readily been strongest and loudest. It may be remarked of this, as of all the other explanations which have been given, that it is mere conjecture, based on an etymology which, in any other language than Hebrew, would at once be rejected as unsound. A few other opinions may be noticed as belonging to the history of the subject. Michaelis, in despair at being unable to assign any meaning to the word, regarded it as an abbreviation, formed by taking the first or other letters of three other words (Suppl. ad Lex. Hebr.), though he declines to conjecture what these may have been, and rejects at once the guess of Meibomius, who extracts the meaning da capo from the three words which he suggests.
For other conjectures of this kind, see Eichhorn, Bibliothek, 5, 545. Mattheson was of opinion that the passages where Selah occurred were repeated either by the instruments or by another choir: hence he took it as equal to ritornello. Herder regarded it as marking a change of key, while Paulus Burgensis and Schindler assigned to it no meaning, but looked upon it as an enclitic word used to fill up the verse. Buxtorf (Lex. Hebr.) derived it from , salah, to spread, lay low; hence used as a sign to lower the voice, like piano. In Eichhorn’s Bibliothek (5, 550) it is suggested that Selah may perhaps signify a scale in music, or indicate a rising or falling in the tone. Koster (Stud. u. Krit. 1831) saw in it only a mark to indicate the strophical divisions of the Psalms, but its position in the middle of verses is against this theory. Augusti (Pract. Einl. in d. Psalm p. 125) thought it was an exclamation, like Hallelujah! and the same view was taken by the late Prof. Lee (Heb. Gr. 243, 2), who classes it among the interjections, and renders it Praise! For my own part, he says, I believe it to be descended from the Arabic root salah, he blessed,’ etc., and used not unlike the word Amen, or the doxology, among ourselves. Delitzsch thinks that the instrumental accompaniment, while the psalm was sung, was soft, and that the Selah indicated loud playing when the singing ceased (Psalmen, 1, 19). Hupfeld, the other most distinguished scholar among recent commentators on the Psalms, agrees with Delitzsch in general that the Selah was the signal for the singing to cease and the instrumental music to be performed alone; and he takes an interlude to be the meaning of the obscure word , by which Selah has been rendered in the Sept. We conclude, therefore, as the general drift of modern interpretation, that Selah denotes a pause in the vocal performance at certain emphatic points, while the single accompanying instrument carried on the music. If any further information be sought on this subject, it may be found in the treatises contained in Ugolilo (vol. 22), in Noldius (Concord. Part. Ann. et Vind. No. 1877), in Saalschtz (Hebr. Poes. p. 346), and in the essay of Sommer quoted above. See also Stolle, Selah Philologioe Enucleatum (Wittenb. 1685); Peucer, De Ebroeorum (Naumb. 1739); Danville Review, 1864. SEE PSALMS, BOOK OF.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Selah
a word frequently found in the Book of Psalms, and also in Hab. 3:9, 13, about seventy-four times in all in Scripture. Its meaning is doubtful. Some interpret it as meaning “silence” or “pause;” others, “end,” “a louder strain,” “piano,” etc. The LXX. render the word by daplasma i.e., “a division.”
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Selah
Seventy-one times in the Psalms, three times in Habakkuk. From shelah, “rest.” A music mark denoting a pause, during which the singers ceased to sing and only the instruments were heard. Septuagint diapsalma, a break in the psalm introduced where the sense requires a rest. It is a call to calm reflection on the preceding words. Hence, in Psa 9:16 it follows eeiggaion, “meditation.” The selah reminds us that the psalm requires a peaceful and meditative soul which can apprehend what the Holy Spirit propounds. Thus it is most suggestive, and far from being, as Smith’s Bible Dictionary alleges of this sense, “superfluous.” Delitsseh takes it from saalal “to lift up,” a musical forte, the piano singing then ceasing, and the instruments alone playing with execution an interlude after sentences of peculiar importance, so as to emphasize them.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Selah
SELAH.A Heb. liturgical-musical term of uncertain meaning. It occurs (a) in the OT, (b) in the Psalms of Solomon, and (c) in the Jewish (Synagogue) Liturgy.
In the OT the term occurs 74 times altogether in the Heb. text, viz. 71 times in the Psalter, and 3 in the Prayer of Habakkuk (Hab 3:1-19). In the Gr. tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of the OT (the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] ) the Gr. equivalent (diapsalma) does not always appear in the same places as in the Heb. text; the number of occurrences is also rather larger in the LXX. [Note: Septuagint.] Possibly in some cases Selah has fallen out of the Massoretic text accidentally. In the Psalms of Solomon Selah occurs twice (17:31 and 18:10), and in the oldest parts of the Jewish Liturgy (apart from the canonical Psalms, which are incorporated in it) 5 times (3 in the Eighteen Blessings and 2 in the morning Benedictions preceding the Shema).
Various explanations have been proposed as to the etymology and meaning of the term. Perhaps the least improbable of these is that which regards it as a liturgical direction intended to indicate the place for lifting up the voices in a doxology at the close of a section; such a doxology might have been sung at the end of a psalm or section of a psalm which liturgically was separated from the following (cf. the use of the Gloria at the end of Psalms or [in the case of the 119th] at the end of sections of the Psalm in Christian worship). Or it may have been a direction to the orchestraLift up! loud!to strike in with loud music (after the soft accompaniment to the singers voices) during a pause in the singing. Other theories, such as that it represents a Heb. transliteration of a Greek word (e.g. psalle) or an abbreviation of three words, have little probability. The meaning of the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] rendering (diapsalma) is as uncertain as that of the Heb. word itself.
G. H. Box.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Selah
This is a pure Hebrew word, and written exactly as it is here. The translators of the Bible have thought proper to preserve, entire as they found it. We find it scattered up and down in the book of the Psalms no less than seventy times; sometimes several times in one Psalm, and in many of the Psalms not at all. It is three times also in this third chapter of Habakkuk, and no where else that I remember in all the Scripture.
It would furnish matter for a separate treatise to bring into one view all that hath been said upon this word Selah; and after all we should be still left to conjecture. Some ancient writers have considered it as a word of particular observation, as if Selah meant to tell the reader to pause, said consider what went before. But this opinion is liable to great objection; for in this case David and Habakkuk are the only writers that thus impress consideration on their Readers, and they that always, neither at what we should consider the most striking parts of their writings: and if this were indeed the sense of Selah, how comes it that not one of the Lord’s servants have ever used?
Others, and that a great majority of writers on Scripture, have concluded that the word Selah had reference to the music in the temple-service, and was a note of the ancient psalmody, but which now and for a long time, hath lost its use. This opinion doth not seem more satisfactory than the former; for supposing this to be the case, it were unaccountable that the Holy Ghost should have uniformly watched the word so as to preserve it with equal care as the Scriptures themselves with which the word is connected.
One class more have concluded that the word Selah means an end, not unlike the Amen. And though there might seem an objection to this, in that the word is more frequently found in the middle part of the psalm or hymn, and not at the last verse, yet, say they, the sense of that part ends there. I humbly conceive that this explanation, though in part it may be right, yet is not wholly so. If the word Selah means the end, perhaps it may be found not to mean the end of the Psalm where it stands, but to a higher end, even pointing to him who is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” and to whom the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms, all refer as the end. (Luk 24:44) He is the great end, no doubt, as well as the beginning, in his mediatorial character, of all the creation of God, the Amen, and the faithful witness of heaven. (Rev 3:14) But here I leave the subject. I am persuaded the word Selah is important; and I am inclined to thin, like some other words preserved to us in the Psalms that it refers to Christ. If the reader wishes to look at these other words, let him turn to the word Musician.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Selah
sela. See MUSIC, II, 1.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Selah
Selah, word
Selah [PSALMS, BOOK OF]
Selah, place
Fig. 314Petra, from above the Amphitheater
Selah, or rather Sela (rock); Gr. Petra, which has the same signification as Selah, the metropolis of the Edomites in Mount Seir. In the Jewish history it is recorded that Amaziah, king of Judah, ‘slew of Edom in the valley of Salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day’ (2Ki 14:7). This name seems however to have passed away with the Hebrew rule over Edom, for no further trace of it is to be found; and it is still called Selah by Isaiah (Isa 16:1). These are all the certain notices of the place in Scripture. Mention is made of it by Strabo, Pliny, and other ancient writers; but from A.D. 536, down to the present century, not the slightest notice of the city is to be found in any quarter; and as no trace of it as an inhabited site is to be met with in the Arabian writers, the probability seems to be that it was destroyed in some unrecorded incursion of the desert hordes, and was afterwards left unpeopled. It was identified by Burckhardt in 1812 as the ancient capital of Arabia Petraea; and since that time has been visited by various travelers, who have given a minute description of its present condition.
The ruined city lies in a narrow valley, surrounded by lofty, and, for the most part, perfectly precipitous mountains. Those which form its southern limit are not so steep as to be impassable; and it is over these, or rather through them, along an abrupt and difficult ravine, that travelers from Sinai or Egypt usually wind their laborious way into the scene of magnificent desolation. The ancient and more interesting entrance is on the eastern side, through the deep narrow gorge of Wady Syke. The boundaries of the city are marked with perfect distinctness by the precipitous mountains by which the site is encompassed; and they give an extent of more than a mile in length, nearly from north to south, by a variable breadth of about half a mile. The sides of the valley are walled up by perpendicular rocks, from four hundred to six or seven hundred feet high. The northern and southern barriers are neither so lofty nor so steep, and they both admit of the passage of camels.
The chief public buildings occupied the banks of the river and the high ground farther south, as their ruins sufficiently show. One sumptuous edifice, which seems to have been a palace, remains standing, though in an imperfect and dilapidated state. It is an imposing ruin, though not of the purest style of architecture, and is the only constructed edifice now standing in Petra.
In various other parts of the valley are piles of ruinscolumns and hewn stonesparts no doubt of important public buildings, which indicate the great wealth and magnificence of this ancient capital, as well as its unparalleled calamities. A large surface on the north side of the river is covered with substructions, which probably belonged to private habitations.
The mountain torrents which, at times, sweep over the lower parts of the ancient site, have undermined many foundations, and carried away many a chiseled stone, and worn many a finished specimen of sculpture into unshapely masses. The soft texture of the rock seconds the destructive agencies of the elements. Even the accumulations of rubbish, which mark the site of all other decayed cities, have mostly disappeared; and the extent which was covered with human habitations can only be determined by the broken pottery scattered over the surface, or mingled with the sandthe universal, and, it would seem, an imperishable memorial of popular cities that exist no longer.
Fig. 315Interior of a tomb
The attention of travelers has however been chiefly engaged by the excavations which, having more successfully resisted the ravages of time, constitute at present the great and peculiar attraction of the place. These excavations, whether formed for temples, tombs, or the dwellings of living men, surprise the visitor by their incredible number and extent. They not only occupy the front of the entire mountain by which the valley is encompassed, but of the numerous ravines and recesses, which radiate on all sides from this enclosed area. Were these excavations, instead of following all the sinuosities of the mountain and its numerous gorges, ranged in regular order, they probably would form a street not less than five or six miles in length. By far the largest number were manifestly designed as places for the interment of the dead; and thus exhibit a variety in form and size, of interior arrangement and external decorations, adapted to the different fortunes of their occupants. Some of them are plain and unadorned, but there is a vast number of excavations enriched with various architectural ornaments. The interior of these unique and sumptuous monuments is quite plain and destitute of all decoration, but the exteriors exhibit some of the most beautiful and imposing results of ancient taste and skill which have remained to our times. The front of the mountain is wrought into facades of splendid temples, rivaling in their aspect and symmetry the most celebrated monuments of Grecian art. Columns of various orders, graceful pediments, broad rich entablatures, and sometimes statuary all hewn out of the solid rock, and still forming part of the native mass, transform the base of the mountain into a vast splendid pile of architecture, while the overhanging cliffs, towering above in shapes as rugged and wild as any on which the eye ever rested, form the most striking and curious of contrasts.
But nothing contributes so much to the almost magical effect of some of these monuments, as the rich and various colors of the rock out of which, or more properly in which, they are formed. Red, purple, yellow, azure or sky blue, black and white, are seen in the same mass distinctly in successive layers, or blended so as to form every shade and hue of which they are capableas brilliant and as soft as they ever appear in flowers, or in the plumage of birds, or in the sky when illuminated by the most glorious sunset. It is more easy to imagine than describe the effect of tall, graceful columns, exhibiting these exquisite colors in their succession of regular horizontal strata.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Selah
A term occurring in Hab 3:3; Hab 3:9; Hab 3:13, and many times in the Psalms. There have been various suggestions as to its meaning, but its signification is not really known. The Targum mostly renders the word ‘for ever.’ The LXX has , denoting, as some think, ‘a pause, a break or rest.’ ‘Pause, consider,’ is perhaps its signification.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Selah
Selah. This Hebrew musical term, which occurs 73 times in the Psalms, and elsewhere only in Hab 3:3; Hab 3:9; Hab 3:13, is supposed to be connected with the use of the temple music.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Selah
Se’lah. This word, which is found only in the poetical books of the Old Testament, occurs seventy-one times in the Psalms, and three times in Habakkuk. It is probably a term which had a meaning in the musical nomenclature of the Hebrews, though what that meaning may have been is now a matter of pure conjecture. (Gesenius and Ewald and others think it has much the same meaning as our interlude, a pause in the voices singing, while the instruments perform alone. — Editor)
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Selah
This expression is found in the Psalms seventy-four times, and thrice in the Prophet Habakkuk. The interpreters Symmachus and Theodotion generally translate selah by diapsalma, which signifies a rest or pause in singing. Jerom and Aquila translate it for ever. Some moderns pretend that selah has no signification, and that it is only a note of the ancient music, whose use is no longer known; and, indeed, selah may be taken away from all the places where it is found without interrupting the sense of the psalm. Calmet says it intimates the end, or a pause, and that is its proper signification; but as it is not always found at the conclusion of the sense, or of the psalm or song, so it is highly probable the ancient musicians put selah in the margin of their psalters, to show where a musical pause was to be made, or where the tune ended.