Se'irath (Heb. with the art, /idx-Siirii/i', rTl^y'vatn, the shafjf/i/ ; Sept. Seeioio^a v. r. ^ereipw^ii ; Vulg. Sei- rath), the place to which Khud tied after his murder of Eglon (Judg. iii, "itJ), and whitiier, by bl.ists of his cow -horn, he collected his countrymen for the at- tack of the Jloabites in .Jericho (ver. 27). It was in ■•Mount Ephraim" (ver. "27), a continuation, perhaps, of the same rough wooded hills (such seems to be the signiticatiou of Sdr) which stretched even so far south as to join the territory of .ludah (.Josh, xv, 10). The definite article prefixed to the name in the original shows that it was a well-known spot in its day. — Smith. It is probably the same as ^lonnt jSeir (ij. v.) just re- ferreil to. the Saris of the present day.
Seirim. See Satvr.
Seite, in Lapp mythology, are deities whose office it was to promote the fertility of tields and lierds. Very little is known respecting the form they assiuned in the popular conception. They are said to have had feet like birds.
Seitonji, in Prussian mythology, were the lowest class of priests, of wliom each village had one or more. They were regarded with great awe, but did not, like the other priests, enjoy tlie respect of the jjeople.
Seja. in Roman mythology, is (1) a surname of For- tuna. to whom Servius Tullius dedicated a temple. (2) A Koman deity of sowing.
Seja. in Hindu mythology, is identical with Aiimi- da, the noted serpent which was wound about the moun- tain Mandar in order to turn it into the 3Iilk Sea.
Se'la (Heb. with the art. Iias-Se'la, S'bsn, the rock, as rendered in Judg. i, 30; 2 Chron. xxv, 12; Obad. 3; and by the Sept. [»'/] n-frpn; A. V. "Selah" in 2 Kings xiv, 7), the name given in the above passages, and (in the A. V.) in Isa. xvi. 1, to the metropolis of the Edomites in IMount Seir. In the .lewisii history it is recorded that Amaziali. king of .ludah. '"slew of Edom, in the valley of salt, ten thousand, and took Sela by war, and called the name of it .loktheel unto this day" (2 Kings xiv. 7). The |)arallel narrative of 2 Chron. xxv, 11-13 supplies fuller details. From it we learn that, having beaten the Edomitish army with a great slaugliter in the "valley of salt" — the valley south of the Dead Sea — Ama/.iah took those who were not slain to the cliff, and threw them headlong over it. This clifl' is asserted by Eusebius (<>noma.it, Ui-Tpa) to be "a city of Edom, also called by the Assyrians Re- kem," by which there is no doubt that he intends Petra (see il)i(l. 'PtKf/(, and the quotations in Stanley's Sin. and Pal. p. 94, note). The title thus bestowed is said to have continued "unto tltis day."' This, Keil re- marks, is a proof that the liistory was nearly contempo- rary with the event, because Amaziah's conijuest was lost again by Ah.az less than a century afterwards (2 Chron, xxviii, 17). This latter name seems, however, to have passed away with the Hebrew rule over Edom, I
for no further trace of it is to be found ; and it is still called by its original name by Isaiah (xvi, 1), These are all the certain notices of the place in Scripture; for it may well be doubted whether it is designated in Judg. i, 3t) and Isa. xlii, 11, as some suppose. On the ground of the sameness of signiticatiou, it is by common consent identilied with the city later known as Petra, ■'iOO Ko- man miles from (iaza (Pliny, vi, 32), the ruins of which, now called those of Wady Miisa, are found about two days' journey north of the top of the (iulf of Akaba, and three or four south from Jericho. This place was in the n)idst of JMount Seir, in the neighborhood of Mount Hor (.hisephus, .l/(^ iv, 4, 7), and therefore in Edomitish ter- ritory, but seems to have afterwards come under the dominion of jMoab. In the end of the 4th century B.C. it appears as the headipiarters of the Nabathreans. who successfully resisted the attacks of Antigonns (Uiod. Sic. [ed. Hauov. 1004] xix. 731), and under them be- caine one of the greatest stations for the approach of Eastern commerce to Home (id. p. 94; Strabo, xvi, 7itS); Apul. F/iir. i, 0), About B,C. 70 Petra appears as the residence of the Arab princes named Aretas (Jose- phus, A nf. xiv, 1, 4 ; 5, 1 , War, i, 0, 2 ; 29, 3). It was by Trajan reduced to subjection to the Koman empire (Dion Cass. Ixviii, 14), and from the next emperor re- ceiveti the name of Hadriana. as appears from the legend of a coin (Keland, Pahvst. p. 931). Josephus {Ant. iv, 4, 7) gives the name of Arce {" kpKt\) as an earlier synonym for Petra. where, however, it is probable that ' .\pKi)f.i or ' kpKf^i (alleged by Eusebius, Onomast., as found in Jo- sejihus) should be read. The city Petra lay. though at a high level, in a hollow shut in by mountain-cliffs, and approached only by a narrow ravine through which, and across the city's site, the river winds (Pliny, vi, 32; Strabo, xvi, 779). See Petka.
Se'la-hammah'lekoth (Heb. Se'la hammach- lekoth', nippn"2n i'PO; Sept. Trirpa ?'/ /.upirr^daa ; Vulg. Petra dirideiis), a rock in the wilderness of ]Maon, the scene of one of those remarkable escapes which are so frequent in the history of Saul's pursuit of David (I Sam. xxiii. 28). Its name, if interpreted as Hebrew, signifies the " rock of escapes," or '"of divisions." The former is the explanation of (iesenius (The.ianr. p. 485), the latter of the Targum and the ancient Jewish inter- preters (Midrash ; Rashi). The escape is that of Da- vid ; the divisions are those of Saul's mind, undecided whether to remain in pursuit of his enemy or to go after the Philistines; but such explanations, though appro- priate to either interpretation, and consistent with the Oriental habit of playing on words, are doubtless mere accommodations. The analogy of topographical no- menclature makes it almost certain that this cliff must have derived its name either from its snioofknegs (one of the radical meanings of p5H) or from some peculiar- ity of shape or jmsition, such as is indicated in the trans- lations of the Sept. and Vulgate. — Smith. The diri- sions characteristic of the mountain, or rather clijf (for such Sela properly means), probalily were the seams or rarinei^ down its sides, which furnished David the means of escape. According to Lieut. Conder (Tent Work in Palestine, ii, 91), the name Maldky is still applied to part of a rocky gorge between Ziph and ilaon, "seamed with many torrent-beds,"