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Bible Dictionaries
Sela
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or celah , "the rock," Greek petra (2 Kings 14:7); Isaiah 16:1, translated "send ye the lamb ("tribute") from Sela through the wilderness to the" king of Judah; Amaziah had subjected it (2 Kings 14:7). See for its rocky position Judges 1:36; 2 Chronicles 25:12; Obadiah 1:3; Numbers 24:21; Isaiah 42:11; Jeremiah 49:16. The city Petra, 500 Roman miles from Gaza, two days' journey N. of the gulf of Akabah, three or four S. from Jordan. In Mount Seir, near Mount Hor; taken by Amaziah, and named Joktheel, i.e. subdued by God, man without God could not take so impregnable a place (Psalms 60:9; Joshua 15:38); afterward in Moab's territory. In the fourth century B.C. the Nabathaeans' stronghold against Antigonus. In 70 B.C. the Arab prince Aretas resided here. The emperor Hadrian named it Hadriana, as appears from a coin.
It lay in a hollow enclosed amidst cliffs, and accessible only by a ravine through which the river winds across its site. A tomb with three rows of columns, a triumphal arch, and ruined bridges, are among the remains. Laborde and Linant traced a theater for sea fights which could be flooded from cisterns. This proves the abundance of the water supply, if husbanded, and agrees with the accounts of the former fertility of the district, in contrast to the barren Arabah on the W. Selah means a cliff or peak, contrasted with eben , a "detached stone or boulder". The khazneh , "treasury," in situation, coloring, and singular construction is unique. The facade of the temple consisted of six columns, of which one is broken. The pediment has a lyre on its apex. In the nine faces of rock are sculptured female figures with flowing drapery. (Palmer supposes them to be the tone muses with Apollo's lyre above.)
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Sela'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/s/sela.html. 1949.
