A call for some knowledge.
- Thread starter loveme1
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
H
Often i have considered what Selah means and this morning noticed it formed part of this name:
If anyone has any knowledge they would like to share, then please share
If anyone has any knowledge they would like to share, then please share
The word “selah” is found in two books of the Bible, but is most prevalent in the Psalms, where it appears 71 times. It also appears three times in the third chapter of the minor prophet Habakkuk.
There is a great deal of confusion about the meaning of “selah,” primarily because the Hebrew root word from which it is translated is uncertain. Well-meaning Bible scholars disagree on the meaning and on the root word, but since God has ordained that it be included in His Word, we should make an effort to find out, as best we can, the meaning.
One possible Hebrew word that is translated “selah” is
“Selah” is also thought to be rendered from two Hebrew words:s_lah, “to praise”; ands_lal, “to lift up.” Another commentator believes it comes from salah, “to pause.” From these words comes the belief that “selah” is a musical direction to the singers and/or instrumentalists who performed the Psalms, which was the hymnbook of the Israelites. If this is true, then each time “selah” appears in a psalm, the musicians paused, either to take a breath, or to sing a cappella or let the instruments play alone. Perhaps they were pausing to praise Him about whom the song was speaking, perhaps even lifting their hands in worship. This would encompass all these meanings—praise, lift up, and pause. When we consider the three verses in Habakkuk, we also see how “selah” could mean “to pause and praise.” Even though Habakkuk was not written to be sung, Habakkuk’s prayer in chapter 3 inspires the reader to pause and praise God for His mercy, power, sustaining grace and sufficiency.
Perhaps the best way to think of “selah” is a combination of all these meanings. The Amplified Bible adds “pause and calmly think about that” to each verse where “selah” appears. When we see the word in a psalm or in Habakkuk 3, we should pause to carefully weigh the meaning of what we have just read or heard, lifting up our hearts in praise to God for His great truths. “All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name." Selah! (Psalm 66:4).
Read more:
Hmmm, interesting post.
After reading the many answers here, I wondered if it could simply mean that place of stillness, peace, presant with God, I am, where all is given, lived and known in Our Lord God?
Not of time or world, but presant in all that we are called to in God?
God bless
pickles
After reading the many answers here, I wondered if it could simply mean that place of stillness, peace, presant with God, I am, where all is given, lived and known in Our Lord God?
Not of time or world, but presant in all that we are called to in God?
God bless
pickles
-
1
- Show all
It also appears in...
Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Selahammahlekoth. 1 Samuel 23:28
And here...
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. 2 Kings 14:7
A possibility...
At some time, Selahammahlekoth, was either shortened or another place was named in part after it. An exclamation resulted from something that was relevant to that place.
The use of the word Selah appears to be an exclamation similar to Amen which was never translated from Hebrew to English. Unlike Amen, it appears that the original translation of the word Selah has long been lost.
Studying what took place at Selahammahlekoth or Selah and looking at how it is used in context in scripture may reveal what it was supposed to mean.
Something interesting to note is that David wrote the majority of the Psalms. Selah was a city that existed in the time of David and Solomon (also wrote some of the Psalms). So I would have to say that it had to have something to do with that city and what it either stood for or what the name meant.
Habbakuk 3 is the only other chapter in the bible other than Psalms and the verse I posted above that mentions the word, Selah.
I know this isn't really an answer, but maybe it will lead to the answer. Let me know if you discover anything on this.
Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Selahammahlekoth. 1 Samuel 23:28
And here...
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. 2 Kings 14:7
A possibility...
At some time, Selahammahlekoth, was either shortened or another place was named in part after it. An exclamation resulted from something that was relevant to that place.
The use of the word Selah appears to be an exclamation similar to Amen which was never translated from Hebrew to English. Unlike Amen, it appears that the original translation of the word Selah has long been lost.
Studying what took place at Selahammahlekoth or Selah and looking at how it is used in context in scripture may reveal what it was supposed to mean.
Something interesting to note is that David wrote the majority of the Psalms. Selah was a city that existed in the time of David and Solomon (also wrote some of the Psalms). So I would have to say that it had to have something to do with that city and what it either stood for or what the name meant.
Habbakuk 3 is the only other chapter in the bible other than Psalms and the verse I posted above that mentions the word, Selah.
I know this isn't really an answer, but maybe it will lead to the answer. Let me know if you discover anything on this.
-
1
- Show all
K
This is yet a third word, sela', spelled samekh-lamed-ayin. This word means a high rock (strong's 5553). It is pronounced different in Hebrew than either of the other two, but English only uses the sound of ayin as a middle consonant (it is the sound between the two e's in reestablish), so we cannot pronounce this word correctly.
-
1
- Show all
A
[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: redheading, width: 50%"]
[TD="class: ltext, width: 25%"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[HR][/HR][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: orange2a, width: 99%"]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: selah
Phonetic Spelling: (seh'-law)
Short Definition: Selah
it says that the word is found in Psalms and Habakkuk 3.... 73 times.
[TR]
[TD="class: redheading, width: 50%"]
5542. selah
[/TD][TD="class: ltext, width: 25%"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[HR][/HR][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: orange2a, width: 99%"]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
selah: to lift up, exalt
Original Word: סֶ֫לָהPart of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: selah
Phonetic Spelling: (seh'-law)
Short Definition: Selah
it says that the word is found in Psalms and Habakkuk 3.... 73 times.
-
1
- Show all