Selah / סֶלָה -- anybody know what it means?

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I also posed this question in the “Sacred Scripture” forum, but I wanted to get the non-Catholic take on this as well.

Selah / סֶלָה is a word found quite often in Psalms, and I never really gave it much thought until it ended up as the answer to a NYT crossword clue yesterday.

Anybody have any idea what it means?

One step further, if I’m meditating on a particular psalm, whither goeth my meditations when I arrive at selah / סֶלָה?

Christian, Jewish, and other perspectives welcomed.
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I also posed this question in the “Sacred Scripture” forum, but I wanted to get the non-Catholic take on this as well.

Selah / סֶלָה is a word found quite often in Psalms, and I never really gave it much thought until it ended up as the answer to a NYT crossword clue yesterday.

Anybody have any idea what it means?

One step further, if I’m meditating on a particular psalm, whither goeth my meditations when I arrive at selah / סֶלָה?

Christian, Jewish, and other perspectives welcomed.
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Thankyou for asking this question, cause I too was wanting to ask, and I too am curious to know the meaning of it.

God Bless
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I also posed this question in the “Sacred Scripture” forum, but I wanted to get the non-Catholic take on this as well.

Selah / סֶלָה is a word found quite often in Psalms, and I never really gave it much thought until it ended up as the answer to a NYT crossword clue yesterday.

Anybody have any idea what it means?

One step further, if I’m meditating on a particular psalm, whither goeth my meditations when I arrive at selah / סֶלָה?

Christian, Jewish, and other perspectives welcomed.
Click to expand...
There are several interpretations of the word Selah but as it relates to the Psalms it’s believed to be a break in the music for reflection of that verse. So let’s take Psalm 9 verse 20: Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah. The choir would sing that verse then go silent for reflection on that verse.
 
NDfan said:
There are several interpretations of the word Selah but as it relates to the Psalms it’s believed to be a break in the music for reflection of that verse. So let’s take Psalm 9 verse 20: Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah. The choir would sing that verse then go silent for reflection on that verse.
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In my French Bible, where it’s written “-Selah” in the English one it would say “-Pause”. Probably meant for a slight musical interlude…
 
Here’s what it says in my bible dictionary:

A word that occurs over seventy times in the Hebrew Psalms & three times in Habakkuk (Hab. 3:3, 9, 13). Scholars surmise that “Selah” is probably a musical or liturgical sign, although its precise meaning is not certain. It may be a kind of direction for musicians & singers to peform a crescendo or begin an instrumental interlude; it may also be a liturgical sign for the lifting up of the voice and hands in prayer.
 
FWIW, the LXX, as well as the Psalter According to the Seventy published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, renders the Selah as “Diapsalm,” which suggests it was a musical indication.

But even “Diapsalm” is obscure.
 
Thank you all for your insightful replies.

It seems that the consensus is that (1) nobody knows for sure, but (2) it’s probably some sort of musical notation.

I wonder if anybody’s ever tried to reconstruct a recitation of the Psalms with “period” instrumentation…
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I also posed this question in the “Sacred Scripture” forum, but I wanted to get the non-Catholic take on this as well.

Selah / סֶלָה is a word found quite often in Psalms, and I never really gave it much thought until it ended up as the answer to a NYT crossword clue yesterday.

Anybody have any idea what it means?

One step further, if I’m meditating on a particular psalm, whither goeth my meditations when I arrive at selah / סֶלָה?

Christian, Jewish, and other perspectives welcomed.
Click to expand...
Selah is Hebrew for “lift up” or “exalt.” It probably indicates places in the liturgy when a benediction would occur. According to Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon, “It probably came into use in the late Persian period, in connection with psi-psi [another musical instruction] used with musical accompaniment in public worship, to indicate place of benedictions.”
 
סלה Selah is a large rock or bolder in Hebrew and can refer to immense. A prayer can end in אמן סלה Amen selah. Amen is from the Hebrew word Amin or truth or believe. Amen selah is complete or full belief or the “Truth”. Selah being used as a queue word or signal is very possible. The end of a line of prayer.
 
Hi,

May be a bit of reference to arabic would help.

Selah = Connection .

'something has ‘‘selah’’ to something else means that it has connection to it.

From the same root , comes the word ‘‘Salah’’ , which means ‘‘prayer’’ . It is called salah because it connects the worshipper to the worshipped entity.

Therefore there is a bug chance that the word you are talking about is inserted in the text either as a mark connecting previous verses to the next ones or that a certain prayer to be recited after each verse .

Good luck with your research.
 
meedo said:
Hi,

May be a bit of reference to arabic would help.

Selah = Connection .

'something has ‘‘selah’’ to something else means that it has connection to it.

From the same root , comes the word ‘‘Salah’’ , which means ‘‘prayer’’ . It is called salah because it connects the worshipper to the worshipped entity.

Therefore there is a big chance that the word you are talking about is inserted in the text either as a mark connecting previous verses to the next ones or that a certain prayer to be recited after each verse .

Good luck with your research.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Does the Arabic equivalent of “סלה” show up anywhere in the Qur’an or any of the Hadith? I would be curious to see if the words are cognates in the scriptual sense as well.
 
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