Post by Lee on Jan 4, 2014 20:00:11 GMT
Psalms 3:2 (First occurrence of the word Selah)
Selah
The translators of the Bible have left the Hebrew word סלה, selah, which occurs so often in the Psalms, as they found it, and of course the English reader often asks his minister or learned friend what it means. And the minister or learned friend has most often been obliged to confess ignorance, because it is a matter in regard to which the most learned have by no means been of one mind. The Targums, and most of the Jewish commentators, give to the word the meaning of eternally, for ever. Rabbi Kimchi regards it as a sign to elevate the voice. The authors of the Septuagint translation appear to have regarded it as a musical or rythmical note. Hentler regarded it as indicating a change of note; Matthewson as a musical note, equivalent to the word repeat. According to Luther and others, it means silence! Gesenius explains it to mean, “Let the instruments play and the singers stop.” “Wocher regards it as equivalent to sursum corda—up, my soul! Sommer, after examining all the seventy-four passages in which the word occurs, recognises, in every case, “an actual appeal or summons to Jehovah.” They are calls for aid and prayers to be heard, expressed either with entire directness, or if not in the imperative “Hear, Jehovah,” or “Awake, Jehovah!” and the like, still earnest addresses to God that he would remember and hear, &c. The word itself he regards as indicating a blast of the trumpets by the priests. Selah itself he thinks an abridged expression, used for Higgaion Selah—Higgaion indicating the sound of the stringed instruments, and Selah a vigorous blast of trumpets.—(Bib. Sac.)
סלה is properly the imperative from the root sahlah, which signifies to lift up, to raise; hence, to suspend a balance, to weigh; and, therefore, metaphorically to consider.—JOHN THOMAS, M.D.
1874 Christadelphian p 187
Selah
The translators of the Bible have left the Hebrew word סלה, selah, which occurs so often in the Psalms, as they found it, and of course the English reader often asks his minister or learned friend what it means. And the minister or learned friend has most often been obliged to confess ignorance, because it is a matter in regard to which the most learned have by no means been of one mind. The Targums, and most of the Jewish commentators, give to the word the meaning of eternally, for ever. Rabbi Kimchi regards it as a sign to elevate the voice. The authors of the Septuagint translation appear to have regarded it as a musical or rythmical note. Hentler regarded it as indicating a change of note; Matthewson as a musical note, equivalent to the word repeat. According to Luther and others, it means silence! Gesenius explains it to mean, “Let the instruments play and the singers stop.” “Wocher regards it as equivalent to sursum corda—up, my soul! Sommer, after examining all the seventy-four passages in which the word occurs, recognises, in every case, “an actual appeal or summons to Jehovah.” They are calls for aid and prayers to be heard, expressed either with entire directness, or if not in the imperative “Hear, Jehovah,” or “Awake, Jehovah!” and the like, still earnest addresses to God that he would remember and hear, &c. The word itself he regards as indicating a blast of the trumpets by the priests. Selah itself he thinks an abridged expression, used for Higgaion Selah—Higgaion indicating the sound of the stringed instruments, and Selah a vigorous blast of trumpets.—(Bib. Sac.)
סלה is properly the imperative from the root sahlah, which signifies to lift up, to raise; hence, to suspend a balance, to weigh; and, therefore, metaphorically to consider.—JOHN THOMAS, M.D.
1874 Christadelphian p 187