sefi;g:v. - A Kabbalist walks into a bar, and the

SEDUCERS
Maasias, an ancestor of BARUCH [~.a.] (Bar. 1 I); cp ' Zedekiah
b. Maaseiah ' Jer. 29 ZIJ z. In Bar. 18 ; elsewhere called ZEDEKIAH, I.
SEDUCERS, RV ' Impostors' (roHTac), 2 Tim. 3 13.
See MAGIC, 4.
SEER(;Igl, I S.99; nfn, 2S.2411); PROPHET,
J 5.
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SELA
SEIR, MOUNT (7*& 117; opoc accap PI,
0. accapsc [Babl, 0. CHEIP [A], 0. ciaip [L]), one of
the landmarks on the boundary between Judah and
Benjamin (Josh. 15 io), between Kirjath-jearim and
CHESALON [q. v.], and therefore in the neighbourhood
of the rocky point of S&is, z m. W. by S. from b7aryeteGknub
(so Robinson). With Saris may be identified
SEGUB (XI@, CsroyB). I. b. Hezron; father of
JAIR [q...] (I Ch. 2~1f., cspoyx [B]). See CALEB-
EPHRATAH, REUBEN, 5 11.
2. The youngest son of HIEL [q.v.] (I K. 1634 ; Kr.
Y:?; S;youp [B ; om. L]). Cp REUBEN, J 11. In d
the Sores of 6, Josh. 1560 (ewpqs [B], crwpqs [A], -as
[L]) ; see Buhl, PuL 91 167, and BENJAMIN, JUDAH.
SEIRAH, but AV Seirath (ilp?*@;l), the place to
which Ehud fled, where he 'blew the trumpet in the
hill country of Ephraim' (Judg. 326, ceTslpwea [Bl,'
of Josh. 626 it may be his name that is rendered
GrarwOCvn ; the translator apparently misread SIIU
(Aram. ' to save ').
On the name see NAMES 0 57 and for S. Ar. analogies,
Hommel S22da&. AZtertZnr~~ (1849) 21. But the theory that
it is an e;hnic like Jair, Hezron, and Machir is attractive. 63
in I Ch. 2 213 implies 191@, and this comes probably by transposition
from 1i.ie (cp SERUG). Abiram, the brother of z, also
probably hears an ethnic name. ' Ram,' if not also the fuller
form Ahiram, comes (like 'Jericho ') from nny= suDni* (Che.).
See Crit. Bi6.
SEIR (7*@), the reputed ancestor of the Horites
(Gen. 3620f. I Ch. 138f:). See SEIR, MOUNT.
SEIR, MOUNT (V&, either lit. 'hairy' [Lag.
064~s. 921, or trop. 'overgrown' [NO. ZDMG40165 n. a]; Q
always mpp, except Josh. 11 17 q 1 c a ~ [A] ; 12 7 met a [AF]
auurrrpa [Ll : I Ch. 1 8 @?BL~ [A] ; kzek. 258 [om. dQ] ; Dt:
passim, Ch. [except I 8h. 1381 U L ~ [L]). Y
The name of a mountain district occupied by Esau and the
Edomites, Josh. 24 4 (E), Gen. 368f: (P), Dt. 2 5 etc., but by the
Horites in Gen. 146 (on text see especially Buhl, Edomifer, 28).
The name ' land of Seir ' (l*@ p!) also appears in Gen. 32 4
u) 36 30(P ; where, however, @ has cSop [ADEL, B lacking])
and (often) simply ' Seir ' Judg. 5 4 Gen. 33 14 16 u), Nu. 24 1:
UE : where, however, @'has 9uau [BAFLI), Dt. 144 etc.
The mountain region of Seir (mod. ef-fuvrih) extends 15
or 20 m. E. from the 'Arabah (S. from the Dead Sea),
which it skirts nearly to the Gulf of'Akaba (the terms
' land of Seir ' and ' Seir,' are sometimes applied to the
plateau W. of the 'Arabah) ; Zimmern ( W 6157 n. 13)
doubtfully suggests a connection with the district of
3eri mentioned (with Gintikirmil) in an Amarna letter
from Jerusalem (Wi. KB518z [B 1051 26). On early
traces of the name Seir, and on its meaning, see EDOM,
5s 2, 3. F. B.
' Edom' and ' Seir ' are terms which are often used
interchangeably as the designation of a region occupied
ceoipwea [AI. cHpW€Ia[L]). The name has greatly
puzzled critics2 Winckler (AZttest. Unt. 5 5 8 ) even
supposed some unknown place on the E. of Jordan
to he meant ; in GI 21co he prefers the a Mt. Seir ' of
Josh. 1510. If, however, we use the key supplied by a
number of the narratives, in which, as the evidence
tends to show, the scene has been transferred from the
Negeb to the tribal territory of Ephraim, we shall see a
way out of this perplexity. Eglon was king of MiSSur,
and the city he took was a place called Jerahmeel--i.c.,
either Jericho (see JERICHO, J 2) or more probably the
capital of the Jerahmeelite Negeb (possibly Kadesh).
After his exploit Ehud escaped to Zarephath (anru),
and mustered the Israelites who dwelt in the southern
Ephraim-Le., the Jerahmeelite highlands. Ehud
himself was probably a Benjamite of the Negeb.
T. K. C.
SELA, or (AV 2 K. ) Selah, or once [see 5 21 PETRA
(&Q. I-ETP~ in Is. ; Y$pn, H TET~~ in JUdg. 2 K. 1.
Judg. 136 (RVmg.) 2 K. 147 (EV) Is. 161 (AVmg. Petra)
42 11 (Hitz., Del., Duhm). Commonly supposed to be
the Hebrew name of the later city of Petra (see J 2).
The name of Sbla' indeed is parallel to the Arabic name
Sal', which Y%&t gives to a fortress in the Wsdy Mas%,
where Petra stood (cp Nold. ZDMG 25z~g).~ Wetzstein
(in Del. /es.(y) 696fl) thinks that SCld is another
name for BOZRAH [q.~.] ; the full name of the Edomite
capital being Bozrath has-sbld, a view which has not
1. No eitJr much to recommend it. Nor is the
called Sela simpler view that a city on the site of
:_ _m Petra was known to the Hebrews as SCld
'JJ "I. or has-sbla' ('the rock') exegetically
tenable ; there is in fact no city called Sdla' mentioned
in the OT. See, however, EDOM. § 7.
Ey Esau and his descendants (Gen. 323 36 I Sf. 19 zr 43
Nu. 24 18 Dt. 2s 8 29 Josh. 244). ' Mt. Seir,' the range
of mountains running S. from the Dead Sea, on the E.
of the 'Arabah. was a main feature of ' Edom ' (Gen.
,146 3685 Dt.28 Josh.244); but 'Seir' (Gen.3314
Dt. 14) and 'the land of Seir' (an ancient variant to
o the country [or field] of Edom,' Gen. 323), are terms
which are clearly not limited to, nor, indeed, are commonly,
if ever, identical with, 'Mt. Seir' in the OT
text. Sometimes i'yu ' Seir ' appears to be miswritten
for iim, ' Mi+r ' [Che.]. The practical question
therefore is, What portion of the country westward of
the 'Arabah was included in ' Seir ' and in the country
of Edom,' in the days of the Israelites' wanderings7l
Cp EDOM, 5 5. Trumbull answers, 'The extensive
plain e:-Sir, bounded on the S. by WHdy el-Fikreh. a
wHdy which ascends south-westerly from the 'Arabah,
from a point not far S. of the Dead Sea, and separates
Palestine proper from the 'AzLzimeh mountain-tract,
or Jebel MakrHh group. The northern wall of this
wHdy is a bare and bald rampart of rock, forming a
natural boundary as it ' goeth up. to Seir ' ; a landmark
both impressive and unique, which corresponds with
all the OT mentions of the Mt. Halak', Kudes?z-6arneu,
'From Skla',' (yb?p)> in Judg. 136 should rather be 'from
the rock' (Ykp:); the reference may he to some siriking cliff
near the S. end of the Dead Sea fitted to be a landmark, such
as that now called es-Szifieh (sd Buhl Moore). In z K. 14 7,
it may be 'some castiebn a rock unkiown to us' (Kittel) that
is referred to. In Is. 161 Y59p, 'from the rocks' (collectively;
cp Jer. 48 zs), is generally taken to describe the route taken by
the Moabitc ambassadors which would run through the rocky
country of Edom. Is. 42 :I should be rendered ' Let the inhahitants
of the rocks (~$0 collectively) sing'; cp Ob. 3. It should
be added, however that though as against 'S8a" the above
summary of cnrren; interpretations will stand, the views of the
geogr.aphy of the texts which are proposed seem open to
question. The redactors themselves were sometimes the authors
of confusion (see Crit. Bi6.).
Of all these passages the only one which can with
any plausibility be thought to refer to Petra is 2 K. 147.
But in the 11 passage, z Ch.2512, we only read of a
e rock,' nor does Joktheel occur anywhere as the name
of an Edomite city; JOKTHEEL [T.v.] is very prohably
connected with ' Maacath ' or ' Jerahmeel. ' The
misinterpretation (for such, as Kittel has shown, it is)
arose partly from the supposed mention of the Edomites.
partly from the comparatively early confusion
between Petra and Kadesh. Eus. and Jer. (OS25671
1459) distinctly assert that Pctra, a city of Arabia in
ggJ2 Cp HALAK, MOUNT.
1 Trumbull Kna'ah-Jarnea. 845
a See furtier Palmer Desert o,fExodur, 404 (a-Sirr) and
note thHt Rowfands (Williams Hob Ciw, 1465) had alieady
connected 'Seir' with es-Serr (&).
1 @E's afmrpoI3a may, perhaps, be a corruption of mye~p~~I3u
and I? confounded).
'Tz See Budde, Moore, and cp van Kasteren, MDPY, 1895,
pp. 26-30.
8 WRS, Eq. Brit., act. 'Petra.'
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