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

SELA-HAMMAHLEKOTH SELAH
the land of Edom. surnamed Joktheel, is called Rekem
by the Assyrians (so Eus., but Jer. ‘Syrians’). Still,
H MEpiceaica [BAL] ; cp Driver’s note), the name
of a mountain where Saul and David ’ played hide and
as elsewhere they appeal to Jos., they may not be
speaking here on their own authority. Jos. (Ant.
seek’ (I S. 2328J). Saul hurries along on one side of
the mountain, thinking to overtake the unseen David,
iv. 47 71)says that Petra, the capital of Arabia, was and David on the other flies (as he thinks) before the
called U~KT or PEKE,U~ from its founder Rekem, a unseen Saul. There is danger of their coming into
hlidianite king. But Targ. Onk. and Targ. Jon.
apply op-1 to Kadesh-‘barnea,’ Gen. 1614 201. opi
is supposed to be connected with doli, ‘ to stone’ ; it
collision, which is averted by the news of an inroad of
the Philistines ; Saul turns aside from the chase. The
narrator must have explained Wd-hammahlEk6th so as
is probably, however, as applied to Kadesh, a corrupt
fragment of ‘ Jerahmeel,’ whilst, as applied to Petra, it
to suggest this ‘hide and seek’ game. But neither
‘ rock of divisions ’ ( EVmg.), nor ‘ rock of escaping ’ (an
may perhaps, as Wetzstein suggests, be derived from
the Greek fiijypa, ‘ a cleft in the rocks.’
Wellhausen (De Genfzdrrs [1870], 39, n. 2) doubts whether
Rekem as the name of Petra is derived from the variegated
colours of the rocks about WZdy MfisZ or from a tribe dwelling
in the Edomite region called Kekem and virtually mentioned
in T Ch. 244. The present writer is Lonvinced, however, that
the REKEM of Chronicles. which is the name of a tribe of
S. Palestine, is really a mutilation of Jerabmeel.
See Wetzstein in Del. Zsaia/t,(9 696-707 ; Buhl, Gesch. der
Edomfer, 34-37 ; Kittel, HK, on 2 K. 147 : Lury, Gesch. der
Edowzifer, z8J: Robinson, BR 2 653H. (n. 36). T. K. c.
Petra Q &+pa ; ai IICrpai), however, which gave its
name to the province Arabia Petraea (ij KaTb IIirpav
2. ‘Apapia, Agathemerus), became famous
under the NABATBANS (a,.. ); but, to judge
from the advantages of its situation, it was doubtless a
city or fortress before that time. Its ruins are in the
deep valley called WBdy MiisH (from its connection in
in Mohammedan legend with Moses), u-hich is in the
mountains forming the eastern wall of the great valley
between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of ‘Akaba. WHdy
MfisH lies just N. of the watershed between the two
seas, in 30’ 19’ N. lat. and 35’ 31’ E. long.’ Travellers
unjustifiable rendering) can be right. Though the
name is confirmed on the whole by the certainly corrupt
form nhn (see HACHILAH), we are almost driven to
suppose that the original form was ni%np? yip, ‘the
rock of the rn@Z6th ’ (circling dances). Mehoiah, like
Hachilah, may come from ‘ Jerahmeel.’ T. K. c.
SELAH (+Dl occurs seventy-one times in forty
psalms, and three times in Habakkuk (33913). Mostly
1. DItta of MT ft occurs in the middle of a psalm ; but
in four psalms (3 9 24 46) also at the
alld end. Usually it occurs only once in a
psalm : but there are several cases of two Selahs, and
in some psalms we find three (3 32 46 66 68 77 140) ;
Ps. 89 actually presents four. In 5520 [xg] 574 [3]
Hab. 339 Selah occurs in the middle of a verse. The
accents connect it closely with the preceding word:
Aq., Jer., Tg. also imply that it forms part of the text.
These three versions take it to mean ‘always’ (del,
seinppr andjugiter, ]+asp$, but also m’in). So Ps. 917,
Theod. and EihXos give del ; Quinta Els 703s a&us ;
Sexta Graaavrbs. 6, however, gives GidqaXpa, a word
coming up the ‘Arabah usually approach the ruins from of somewhat uncertain signification (Theodoret, pbXous
the SW. by a rough path, partly of artificial construc- pmu@X$) ; it occurs more frequently than the Hebrew
tion ; but the natural entrance is from the E. down a
z Selah. ’
narrow defile more than a mile long called the Sik L‘arious conjectures as to the etymology of Selah have
(‘ shaft ‘). The Sik is a contraction in the valley of a
stream which comes down from the E., rising in the
so-called Fountain of Moses (‘Ain MI~sZ),~ and passing
between the villages of Elji and ‘Aireh (Palmer). Both
these places are ancient : the latter is the fortress Wobeen
offered (see Ges. Thes. 955 ; and the commentaries
a. Useand of Delitzsch and Ehethgen) ; even a Greek
origin (qdXXe) has been suggested (Paulus
mew* Cassel ; see Siegfried-Stade, fiz.). Parisot
(Rm. dibl., Oct. 1899) approves the theory that Selah
‘aka of Y2ktX4 whilst Elji, mentioned by Edrisi, is the represents a musical interlude. Briggs suggests that
‘Gaia urbs juxta civitatem Petram ’ of the Onomasti~on.~ when a section of a psalm or a prayer was used apart
Below these and above the ravine the characteristic
rock-cut tombs and dwellings of the Nabataeans begin
from its context in liturgical service it was followed
by a doxology, and that ‘ Selah ’ divides a psalm into
to appear.
Not only was Petra a place of refuge and a safe
storehouse, it was also the great centre of the Nabataean
sections for liturgical use.’ By an inductive process
Miss E. Briggs arrives at results of much interest (AYSL
16 1-29). These partly depend on the correctness of the
caravan trade. It was the place where the Gaza road MT ; but Grimme has shown that in some cases (and
branched off from that to Bostra, Palmyra, and N.
Syria, and it commanded the route from Egypt to
the present writer, Che. PJ.(~), has added considerably
to the number) the nh of MT is due to corruption of
Damascus. From Petra, too, there went a great route the text.
direct through the desert to the head of the Persian Attractive as the view that 2 3 is ~ properly a musical
Gulf. Thus Petra became a centre for all the main
lines of overland trade between the E. and the W.,
and it was not till the fall of the Nabatean kingdom
that Palmyra superseded it as the chief emporium of
indication may be, it will have to be reconsidered if
the other so-called musical notes in
3.
the headings owe their existence to
^--I
u1 ‘SU.
textual corruption. In that case it
N. Arabia.
See Leon de Laborde and Linant, VoyaEe dam rArarhie
PitrPe (1830) ; Duc de Luynes, Voyage Gexjloration 2 Za mer
nrorfe (sa.); Palmer, Deserf of fhe Exodus, ++os; Visconti,
Viaggo in AraBia Petrea (1872); Lihbey, PEFQ, rgoz,
P. 412J T.K.C.,§I; W.R.S.,§2.
becomes plausible to hold that is a corruption of
Sazlm (&), ‘supplement,’ or @“allZm (OS&), ‘for
supplementing.’ The note may either be a direction
to supplement the MS at a defective place from another
MS, or an intimation that an editor at this point has
made an insertion in the psalms. Possibly the old
1 The latitude and longitude are taken from De Luynes’s
map. Ptolemy, who, according to Olympiodorus, spent some
time in Petra, and doubtless owes to this fact his excellent information
about the caravan-routes in Arabia, zives the latitude,
with surprising accuracy, as 30’ 20‘.
a Cp Diod. 1997.
3 This seems to be the fountain mentioned by Nowairi (in
Quatremsre‘s Milnnges, 84), which Boned with blood and was
changed to water by Moses. The name Od-demB, which gave
rise to this legend, may possibly be a relic of the old name of
Edom.
4 Perhaps also the ‘IrBm of Gen. 3643 [see IRAM].
6 See Tuch, Gen.P) 271 n.
traditional interpretation always ’ points to a reading
osy or 03~5, which was itself a corruption of o$& or
&w!. For another view see B. Jacob, ZATWl61%9&
As to the meaning of @‘s Gr&$dpr : for the opinions of the
Fathers see Suicer, 18p ; Lag., Nova PsaZfe++i Grr~ci Edifzonis
S#ecimrn, IO; B. Jacob, ZATWlS (r896) ~73-181. The result
is that all the vanous explanations are pure guesses. What,
then, is to be offered in place of them? We cannot suppose
that the Alexandrian translators coined Grd$aApa ; hut it is very
1 ‘An inductive study of Selah’ (/BL18132f.). Briggs
thinks it probable that is an imperative cohortative, ‘lift
up a benediction or doxology.’
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