Wednesday 27 Jun 2007

Oh! Oh, Selah!

17 comments Christopher Heard | Bible (specific texts)

17 Responses to “Oh! Oh, Selah!”

1. on 27 Jun 2007 at 9:23 am   Duane
   
   

   Chris,

   Has anyone suggested that the word might be related to Akkadian salā’u(m) (salû) which in some contexts means “to sprinkle” water, sometimes even as part of a purification ritual? I looked around a little and couldn’t find this suggestion. Weirdly, in some contexts the Akkadian word also means “to slander.” Lexicographers relate this Akkadian word to your second verb spelled סלה. I know that this is nothing more than throwing mud into a swamp. But I have occasionally wondered if the strange words in the Psalms were ritual rubrics rather than musical rubrics as some think them.

2. on 27 Jun 2007 at 9:33 am   Ken
   
   

   Chris,
   I don’t know if it helps, but I just ran a quick search of my DSS Accordance module and compared it with Martinez-Tigchelaaar; there seem to be 12 occurrences of HLS (Selah) in the non-Biblical scrolls: Five in 4Q381, one in 4Q425, five in 11Q11 and one in 11Q13.

   A few of these must be reconstructed and in two clear references Selah is the only surviving word of the line (4Q381 f21:2 and 4Q425 f2+f4i:4; neither of these are in Martinez-Tigchelaar), but all the rest seem to end or come between psalms:

   In 4Q381 f24:3, Selah is followed by a Blank and then new line which reads: “Hymn (HLHT) of the man of God….”
   In 4Q381 f31:3 (reconstructed by Abegg, left out by Martinez-Tigchelaar), Selah comes before a blank, then a new line reads: “[Prayer of... K]ing of Judah….”
   In 4Q381 f33a,b + f35:6, Selah is followed by a Blank, a skipped line, then a new line reading “Prayer of Manasseh….”
   In 11Q11 5:3 (reconstructed by both Abegg and Martinez-Tigchelaar), Selah is followed by a blank and a new line reading “Of David….”
   11Q11 6:3 has Selah at the end of what appears to have been a psalm, immediately followed by a substantially reworked version of Psalm 91, ascribed to David (notably, the MT does not have a superscription): “[Of David. He that lives] in the shelter of [the Most High....]”
   The word then occurs at 11Q11 6:6, within in the citation of Psalm 91 (at the end of Ps 91:4; this despite the fact that Selah does *not* occur in the MT of Psalm 91).
   11Q11 6:13 then ends the Psalm with Selah, then after a blank, 6:14 adds “And [they] shall ans[wer: Amen. Amen.] Selah.” The rest of the manuscript is then lost.
   11Q13 2:11 is simply a quotation of Psalm 82:2, and includes Selah along with the MT.

   Thus, apart from the insertion into the middle of Ps 91 in 11Q11 6:6, and the quotation of Ps 82:2 in 11Q13 2:11, all clear references in the non-Biblical DSS seem to end Psalms, or at least come between two of them.

3. on 27 Jun 2007 at 10:46 am   Kyle
   
   

   Selah is sufficiently enigmatic as to have attracted attention from such disparate quarters as Hunter S. Thompson, Rastafarian singers, Bible code enthusiasts, and new-agey evangelicals.

   The Rastas usew it almost like an “Amen,” and they have created a folk etymology based on the similarity in English to “seal up”.

   Thanks for the comment, Chris.

4. on 27 Jun 2007 at 11:17 am   Christopher Heard
   
   

   Thanks for the input, Ken and Duane. Unfortunately, none of this data really makes the use of the world much clearer, does it?

5. on 27 Jun 2007 at 11:32 am   Duane
   
   

   Chris,

   I think my suggestion, if correct, makes the use of the word very clear. :-) The problem is that there is a very low likelihood that my suggestion is correct. In addition, I can’t think of any way to test it based on what we know at the present time.

6. on 27 Jun 2007 at 11:46 am   Ken
   
   

   My only guess from the DSS evidence is that it was seen (by the late centuries BC, anyway) as a kind of break marker – making it largely structural – but its rarity suggests it was falling out of use.

   Whether it also, or at one time, had a broader meaning (like Amen does), I don’t know and I’m not sure how to tell! :/

7. on 27 Jun 2007 at 11:52 am   Christopher Heard
   
   

   That’s just it, Ken: the evidence is so varied that I can’t really find a common thread.

8. on 27 Jun 2007 at 2:01 pm   Michael Janapin
   
   

   Hi Chris,
   Thanks for that great summary you provided.
   From what I can see in your systematic summary, סלה seems to me what in Music is a ‘rest’. If the Psalms were used in the cult, then it might be a ‘drum roll’ or whatever, used to separate or end thoughts. What do you think?

9. on 27 Jun 2007 at 3:13 pm   Kevin P. Edgecomb
   
   

   Yes, the “something musical” suggestion seems to be something of a consensus, at least in what I’ve read. What the precise meaning is, however, is lost. The LXX diapsalma, a musical interlude is as good a meaning as any. I think in modern music it’s called bridge, a short instrumental interlude between two verses of a song.

10. on 01 Jul 2007 at 11:01 am   Bob MacDonald
    
    

    I like Goulder’s suggestion (Psalms of the Sons of Korah) that SELAH might be a liturgical marker for the reading of a piece of salvation history – much as today in some traditions, the sequence hymn for the gospel is sung before and after the gospel reading.

11. on 02 Jul 2007 at 10:07 am   Kevin P. Edgecomb
    
    

    By the way, Chris, look at the number of this post. It’s the Antichrist! Look out!

12. on 11 Jul 2007 at 7:35 am   Ketuvim: the Writings of James R. Getz Jr. סלה: a ritual or musical term? «
    
    

    [...] or musical term? July 11th, 2007 — jimgetz Acting on a request by Rick Brannan, both Christopher Heard and John Hobbins have trolled into the deep and chaotic waters to ponder the meaning of the Hebrew [...]

13. on 16 Jul 2007 at 8:46 am   Mark A McDaniel
    
    

    My Hebrew professor stated that the Selah was a Hebrew “Stop Sign” for all who read to stop and meditate clearly on what has been said. Usually, the Selah is prefixed by a major theological assertion. No Akkadian here, just a bit of amateur theology. God bless.

14. on 07 May 2009 at 7:47 pm   Faith
    
    

    The true meaning of Selah may have been well hidden

    King Josiah changed the religion of Israel in 623 BC. According to the Old Testament account in 2 Kings 23, he removed all manner of idolatrous items from the temple. We can never know for certain what it was that Josiah purged or why he did it. No original versions of the actual texts or records survive from that period. The Babylonian Talmud records that Josiah had hidden away the ark, the holy anointing oil, the jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod. In other words, Josiah’s changes concerned the high priests and were thus changes at the very heart of the temple.

    “Selah” is the name of a city from the time of David and Solomon

    The name Sela: Latin: Blind one; the sixth; feminine form of Cecil, Hebrew: A rock, Greek: Moon. First name variations: Selah, Sile, Sheila

    In Genesis 49:10, it says , The scepter shall not depart from until Shiloh comes.

    Shiloh is formed of four letters שילה. Strong’s (Shiloh comes from the root word, Shalah, S#7951.) Sheila in Hebrew is spelled שילה. Sheila and Shiloh have the exact same spelling and Selah is a variation for Sheila

    There is also a Town called Shiloh, but it is spelled differently and doesn’t have the yod in it. This name cannot be identical with, or refer to, the town where the Ark of the Covenant or Tabernacle was; for until then no sceptre or lawgiver had appeared in the tribe of Judah. The word certainly refers to a person, and not to a place.

    Judges 18:31 So they set them up Micah’s engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

    Jeremiah 7:12,14 Shiloh is where the YHWH “set my name at the first” for the covenant people Israel.

    In the original Hebrew of the Bible, Eloah [el-LO-ah], is the feminine form of ‘God.’ El Shaddai is another name of God used in the Bible. The word ‘shad’ means ‘woman’s breast,’ and ‘shaddai’ means ‘breasts,’ or ‘many breasts.’ Though El Shaddai is translated as ‘God Almighty,’ or ‘the Almighty’ in the English Bible, it literally means ‘God with breasts’ Ruach ha Kodesh is the Hebrew phrase that means ‘Holy Spirit.’ Ruach is feminine. ‘Wisdom’ is the feminine Hebrew word Hochmah; the equivalent name in Greek is Sophia.

    There is a radically important declaration in Exodus 6:3: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by the name of El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.” The Patriarchs were aware of the Father El,but Elohim related to them primarily as the Goddess, El Shaddai.

    YHWH is a combination of Yah and HaWaH (Eve) Elohim is plural for Eloah and El

    The shaliach tzibbur also spelled sheliah tzibbur was the messenger of the congregation. Sheliah means messenger and Tzibbur means congregation. Again we have a form of Sheila.

    “Kedushshat ha-Shem” = “the sanctification of the Name.” It is very short, though the variants are numerous (see below). It reads as follows:
    “Thou art holy and Thy name is holy, and the holy ones praise Thee every day. Selah. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the holy God.”

    The Jews believed the Shekinah went into exile with the destruction of the temple and will return with us when return to Israel in the days of Moshiach. At that time she will once again rejoin her “husband”, the masculine aspect of God.

    When all the Jews are once again in the Land of Israel, the Shekinah will return with us as well, and be reunited. And “on that day God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zechariah)

    Psalms comes from Hebrew word mizmor “melody of praise” So, possibly Selah, Shiloh, Sheila is the Shekinah of God to whom one praise

15. on 30 Jun 2010 at 10:49 am   Edward
    
    

    Could you please elaborate what seems an obvious point to others so that someone with no knowledge of hebrew(me) can understand? The hebrew symbols for “Selah” seem to look exactly the same as that for the verbs that mean “to value” or “to reject”. Why is “Selah” considered different from those verbs?

16. on 06 Jul 2010 at 3:32 pm   Christopher Heard
    
    

    Edward, I’ll give it a shot. Biblical Hebrew does attest three different words spelled s-l-h (סלה). The tradents who added the vowel pointings vocalized these words in different and distinct ways.

    The word selah, which appears three times in the Hebrew text of Habakkuk and 70 times in the Hebrew text of Psalms, is obscure in meaning, but it’s clearly a structural or musical marker of some kind, as it just doesn’t fit grammatically any other way into the places where it appears.

    The verb labeled as s-l-h I is clearly attested in only two verses in the Tanakh. In Psalm 119:118 it appears to mean “to reject” or “to treat as worthless.” The subject is God and the object is “those who stray from [God's] laws.” Strong evidence for the meaning of this word comes from the Greek translation, exoudenoō, “to scorn.” In Lamentations 1:15, a different form is used, which appears to mean “to throw away.” Again, strong evidence for the meaning of this word comes from the Greek translation, exairō, “to remove, carry away.”

    The word labeled as s-l-h II appears only in Job 28:16, 19. It appears in a passive form that appears to mean “to be valued.” Again, strong evidence in favor of this translation comes from the Greek translation, sumbastazō, “to compare with.”

    But if we go back to the occurrences of selah in Habakkuk and Psalms, the Greek translation has diapsalma, and in fact the Greek translation adds diapsalma where the Hebrew text doesn’t have it, over twenty times!

    This evidence is very strong that Hellenistic-era Jews read these as three different words.

17. on 07 Jul 2010 at 11:18 pm   Edward
    
    

    Many, many, thanks for the clear explanation.

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