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What does this word mean? It's at the end of many verses in Psalms, often in more than one verse in the same Psalm.

(03-22-2009 02:46 PM)YYZ Skinhead Wrote: [ -> ]What does this word mean? It's at the end of many verses in Psalms, often in more than one verse in the same Psalm.

From Brown, Driver, and Briggs - a premiere OT concordance/Lexicon:

H5542
סלה
selâh
BDB Definition:
1) to lift up, exalt
1a) Selah
1a1) a technical musical term probably showing accentuation, pause, interruption
Part of Speech: verb

(03-22-2009 02:46 PM)YYZ Skinhead Wrote: [ -> ]What does this word mean? It's at the end of many verses in Psalms, often in more than one verse in the same Psalm.

Hey there, LM,

Good question. And good to see you reading again.

According to Strong's it means:

H5542
סלה
selâh
seh'-law
From H5541; suspension (of music), that is, pause: - Selah.

The word Selah is actually also found in 2 Kings 14:7 and refers to a place.

2Ki 14:7 He 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

H5554
סלע
sela‛
seh'-lah
The same as H5553; Sela, the rock city of Idumaea: - rock, Sela (-h).


Looking at the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, it states among other things:

Selah: or, the rock, Selah is generally supposed to be the same as Petra, which in Greek signifies a rock, the celebrated capital of Arabia Petrea. Strabo places it three or four days' journey from Jericho, and five days' journey from the forest of palm trees on the Red Sea. Pliny places it 600 miles from Gaza, and 125 from the Persian Gulf; ...

Soo...like a musical pause in the Pslams.

Selah just means
shut up and listen!
EMJE

(03-22-2009 05:44 PM)Emjesown Wrote: [ -> ]Selah just means
shut up and listen!
EMJE

I had a feeling it was some sort of musical cue in the Psalms since so many of them are written to various chief musicians. :music:

(03-22-2009 05:44 PM)Emjesown Wrote: [ -> ]Selah just means
shut up and listen!
EMJE

Now whenever I see/hear a pause in a music class this is the first thing I'll think. :punch:

P.S. Reading these replies inspired me to look up the word on http://blueletterbible.org and I ended up reading some Psalms I had either never read or merely skimmed. Who says this site isn't a blessing from God? :708:

(03-23-2009 02:37 PM)YYZ Skinhead Wrote: [ -> ]P.S. Reading these replies inspired me to look up the word on http://blueletterbible.org and I ended up reading some Psalms I had either never read or merely skimmed. Who says this site isn't a blessing from God? :708:

:arms: Your Mom would be so pleased, and I am pleased to hear you are reading. Don't stop. Thanks for the kind encouragement.

Have you considered downloading esword or a similar program and using that as a study source? Think I mentioned it to you before as an option to having one on hand.

(03-23-2009 02:37 PM)YYZ Skinhead Wrote: [ -> ]P.S. Reading these replies inspired me to look up the word on http://blueletterbible.org and I ended up reading some Psalms I had either never read or merely skimmed. Who says this site isn't a blessing from God? :708:

That's a big 10-4 :hands:

(03-23-2009 02:49 PM)Vic Wrote: [ -> ]Have you considered downloading esword or a similar program and using that as a study source? Think I mentioned it to you before as an option to having one on hand.

Unfortunately they haven't a version for Mac. The one flaw with Macs is their incompatibility with everything.