Selah

סלהSelah. LXX. Διάψαλμα.SELAH. This Hebrew Word is found seventy times in the Hebrew Text of the Psalms, and thrice in Habakkuk. The Septuagint read it still oftener, since they have put Diapsalma in some Places where we don’t find Selah in the Hebrew. Those Interpreters, a Symmachus and Theodotion, generally translate Selah by Diapsalma, which signifies a Rest or Pause in Singing. Diapsalma interpositum in canendo silentium, says St. Austin: Or a Change of Tone, according to Theodoret¹ and Suidas. Others will have it, that it marks the Beginning of a new Sense, or a new Measure of Verses: Quidam Diapsalma dixerunt esse Hieron. ad Marcellam.commutationem metri, alii pausationem spiritûs, non-nulli alterius sensûs exordium, sunt qui rythmi distinctionem, says St. Jerom. He adds, that Selah joins that which follows to that which goes before, and shews, that what has been said, deserves to be always remember’d: Ex quo animadvertimus hoc verbum superiora pariter & inferiora connectere, aut certè dicere sempiterna esse quæ dicta sunt. He follows Aquila, in the fifth and sixth Edition, in translating Selah by for ever.

Some Antients have thought,² that Selah shew’d the Intermission or Cessation of the actual Inspiration of the Psalmist, or of the internal Motions of his Devotion³. Saint Hilary and Cassiodorus think,⁴ that Diapsalma points out a Change of the Voice, or of the Person, or of the Tune, in the Psalms. Some Moderns pretend,⁵ that Selah has no Signification, and that it is only a Note of the ancient Musick, whose Use is no longer known. And indeed, Selah may be taken away from all the Places where it is found, without interrupting the Sense of the Psalm: It only perplexes the Text, instead of making it any thing clearer. Others say,⁶ it was a Note which shew’d the Elevation of the Voice; and that in these Places the Reader should cry out, and make an Exclamation. Aben-ezra teaches, that it is as the Conclusion of a Prayer, and answers nearly in Signification to Amen, or, So be it. At the End of their Epitaphs and Books the Jews generally put Selah, Finis, So be it.

We make no doubt but that Selah intimates the End, or a Pause, and that this is its proper Signification: But as we do not always find it at the End of the Sense, nor at the End of a Canticle, we guess that the ancient Musicians sometimes put Selah in the Margin of their Psalters, to shew where the Pause was to be made, and where the Tune ended. Just as in the old Books of the Gospels,⁷ which were read solemnly in the Church, they writ upon the Margin, either at Length, or with a Contraction, the Greek Word Telos, or the Latin Word Finis, to shew the Place where the Deacon was to make an End of the Lesson: For at that time the Text was read in Books which contain’d the four Evangelists at Length. Or else the ancient Hebrews sung pretty nearly as the Arabians do at this Day,⁸ with great Pauses, ending all at once, and also beginning again all at once. For this Reason, it was necessary, in publick Ceremonies, to mark in the Margin of the Psalm the Place of the Pause, and of the End, that the whole Choir might rest at once, and begin again at the same time.

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