3. Rahhinical Writers. — The majority of these follow the Targum and the dictum of R. Eliezer (Talm. Babyl, Ernhin, v, 54) in rendering Selah "forever;" but Aben- Ezra {On Psa. Hi, 3) showed that in some passages this rendering was inappropriate, and expressed his own opinion that Selah was a word of emphasis, used to give weight and importance to what was said, and to indicate its truth — "but the right explanation is that the meaning of Selah is like 'so it is,' or 'thus,' and ' the matter is true and right,' " Kimchi {Lex. s. v,) doubted whether it had any special meaning at all in connection with the sense of the passage in Avhich it was found, and explained it as a musical term. He derives it from PbD, to raise, elevate, with n paragogic, and interprets it as signifying a raising or elevating the voice, as much as to say in this place there was an elevation of the voice in song.
4. Modern Writers. — Among these there is the same diversity of opinion. Gesenius {Thesaur. s. v.) derives Selah from ri3D, saluh. to siispewJ, of which he thinks it is the imperative Kal, with n paragogic, ribp, in pause nip. But this form is supported by no [larallel instance. In accordance with his derivation, which is harsh, he interprets Selah to mean either "suspend the voice," that is, "be silent," a hint to the singers, or "raise, elevate the stringed instruments." In either case he regards it as denoting a pause in the song, which was tilled up by an interlude played by the choir of Le- vites, Ewald {Die Dichter des A. B. i, 179) arrives at substantially the same result bj- a different process. He derives Selah from ?bD, s(ddl, to rise, whence the sub- stantive bp, which with H paragogic becomes in pause nbo (comp. rilil, from "iln, root "l^<^, Gen. xiv, 10). So far as the form of the word is concerned, this derivation is more tenal)le than the former, Ewald re- gards the phrase " Higgaion, Selah," in Psa. ix, IG [17], as the full form, signifying "music, strike up!" — an in- dication that the voices of the choir were to cease while the instrnments alone came in, Hengstenberg follows Gesenius, De Wette, and others, in the rendering Pavse! but refers it to the contents of tlie psalm, and under- stands it of the silence of the music in order to give room for quiet reflection. If this were the case, Selah at the end of a psalm would be superfluous. The same meaning oi pause or end is arrived at by Fiirst {llandw. s. v.), who derives Selah from a root n?0, saldh, to cut off{ix meaning which is perfectly arbitrary), whence the
SELAH
514 SELECTIONS OF PSALMS
substantive bo, sc!, which with H paragogic becomes in pause nbo, a form which is without parallel. While etvmologi.sts have recourse to such shit'ts as these, it can scarcely be expected that the true meaning of the word will be evolved by their investigations. Indeed, the question is as far from solution as ever. Beyond the fact that Selah is a musical term, we know abso- lutely nothing about it, and are entirely in the dark as to its meaning. Sommer {Bibl. Abhwidl. i, 1-84J has devoted an elaborate discourse to its explanation (trans- lated in the Bibliolheca Sacra, I8i8, p. 66 sq.). After observing that Selah everywhere appears to mark crit- ical moments in the religious consciousness of the Israel- ites, and that the music was employed to give expres- sion to the energv of the poet's sentiments on these occasions, he (p. 40) arrives at the conclusion that the word is used "in those passages where, in the Temple Song, the choir of priests who stood opposite to the stage occupied by the Levites were to raise their trump- ets (bbo), and with the strong tones of this instrument mark the words just spoken, and bear them upwards to tlie hearing of Jehovah. Probably the Levitical min- strels supported this priestly intercessory music by vig- orously striking their harps and psalteries; whence the (rreek expression ^ia;//rt\^a. To this points, moreover, tlie fuller direction, ' Higgaion, Selah' (Psa. ix, 16) ; the first word of which denotes the whirr of the stringed instruments (Psa. xcii, -I), the other the raising of the trumpets, both of which were here to sound together. The less important [Ii</f}aion fell away, when the ex- pression was abbreviated, and Selah alone remained." Ur. Davidson (Tii/rod. to the Old Test, ii, 2i8) with good rjason rejects this explanation as labored and artificial, though it is adopted by Keil in Hiiverjiick's Einleitung (iii. 120-129). He shows that in some passages (as Psa. xxxii, 4, 5; Hi, 3; Iv, 7, 8) the playing of the priests on the trumpets would be unsuitable, ami proposes the fol- lowing as his own solution of the difficulty: "The word ilenotes eleviition or hsopM, i. e. load, clear. The music which commonly accompanied the singing was soft and feeble. In cases where it was to burst in more strongly during the silence of the song, Selah was the sign. At the end of a verse or strophe, where it commonly stands, the music may have readily been strongest and loudest." It may be remarked of this, as of all the other explana- tions which have been given, that it is mere conjecture, based on an etymology which, in any other language than Hebrew, would at ouce be rejected as unsound. A few other opinions may be noticed as belonging to the history of the subject. Michaelis, in despair at being unable to assign any meaning to tlie word, regarded it as an abbreviation, formed by taking the first or other letters of three other wonts (^Snppl. ad Lex. Ilebr.), though he declines to conjecture what these may have been, and rejects at once the guess of Meibomius, who extracts the meaning da capo from the three words which he suggests. For other conjectures of this kind, see Eichhorn, Bihliolhek, v, 545. iMattheson was ()f opinion that the passriges where Selali occurred were repeated either by the instruments or by another choir: hence he took it as equal to ritoriiello. Herder regard- ed it as marking a change of key, while Paulus Burgen- sis and Schindler assigned to it no meaning, but looked upon it as an enclitic word used to fill up the verse. B.ixtorf (Lex. llebr.') derived it from nbo, salah, to spreal, lay low ; hence used as a sign to lower the voice, like piano. In Eichhorn's Hiblioth(dc (v, 550) it is sug- gested that Sslah may perhaps signify a scale in music, or indicate a rising or falling in the tone. Kiister (*S/«f/. «. Krit. 18:U) saw in it only a mark to indicate the strophical divisions of the Psalms, but its position in the mid lie of verses is against this theorj'. Angusti {Pract. Kial. in d. Psa.p. 125) thought it was an excla- mation, like llalleliijah ! and the same view was taken by the late Prof. Lee {lleb. Gr.% 213, 2), who classes it