M. B. LICHTENSTEIN by M. B. Lichtenstein

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 5, 1877

M. B. LICHTENSTEIN

By M. B. Lichtenstein

Selah.

THE word selah, which is found seventy-six times in the Old Testament, has attracted the attention of quite a number of critics, some supposing it to have been derived from the Hebrew word shalah, rest; others from the word salah, to lift up; to raise the voice in singing the Psalms wherein the word selah is found. The great Jewish commentator, Rashi, thinks that selah is an abbreviation from three Hebrew words, i. e., a sign to change the voice, or to raise it. But all of these suppositions deviate more or less from the real root of which selah is derived. By stating a few facts, we cannot help but see what selah means, and what its etymology is:—

In the Hebrew, most all nouns are derived from verbs, and verbs are derived from sounds, some of which we can still trace back to their origin; while of others, owing to the change of manners since the language was first formed, the true etymology cannot very easily be traced. As kol, a noise; hass, hush; tseelsal, ringing; etc. By producing these sounds the reader can plainly see how verbs and nouns were at first formed. Philologists have named the formation of such words onomatopoeia.

The word selah is also an onomatope; it is derived from salal, to stamp. In ancient times, sandals were used instead of boots and shoes; and these sandals being made from wood, would produce, by stamping, the sound salal. David, when he wanted his choir to pause in chanting the psalms, instead of using the baton as leaders of bands and choirs do at the present day, would stamp with his sandal; and that indicated a pause. Hence salal, to stamp; selah, denoting a pause by the tramping of the foot; meseelah, a path, a way; because of its being tramped. The word sole in English, denoting the bottom of a shoe or boot, might possibly have been derived from the Hebrew word salal.