'Selah': It Appears 74 Times In The Bible But What Does It Mean?
Harry
Farley JOURNALIST
With
another three occurrences in Habakkuk, it appears as many times as the phrase
"fear not".
But
no one really knows what it means. Most translations leave it untranslated or
just remove it altogether.
The Merriam Webster dictionary has a
particularly unhelpful definition: "A term of uncertain meaning found in the
Hebrew text of the Psalms and Habakkuk carried over untranslated into some
English versions."
But
it was deliberately inserted by the first authors and scribes and so surely an
effort should be made to understand it.
A
broad consensus considers it to be some sort of musical direction for when the
Psalms as poetry were originally put to music.
The
authoritative Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, translates
it as "daplasma" which means "a division" or "apart from the Psalm". Hippolytus
of Rome, an early Church scholar, thought the term meant a change in rhythm or
melody.
Other
possible Hebrew renditions of the word is "salah" which means "to pause". This
has led to the belief that it's a musical term indicating a rest for musicians
or an instruction to worshippers to stop and consider the Lord they are
worshipping.
Another
idea is it is rendered from two separate Hebrew words, "s_elah" which means "to
praise" and "s_lal" which means "to lift up". Combined together this would give
a more specific instruction to both musicians and the congregation "to pause and
praise" outside the formal structure of the Psalm.
The
translation "to lift up" has led to other scholars speculating it may have been
a musical direction equivalent to "fortissimo" or "loud". This could have meant
as a signal to blast on trumpets or crash symbals in celebration while singers
paused.
One
final possibility is it means "forever" or "eternal" – again signifying the
manner of worship or praise.
I was once taught that it meant 'repeat'. (The previous
line/verse.)
