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Bible Dictionaries
Selah
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or 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 (Habakkuk 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 orchestra ‘Lift 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.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Selah'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/s/selah.html. 1909.
