Selah!

Just had an email from my elder brother, the Rev Norman Ryder, with some (expectedly) erudite comments on the above topic (see my previous post):

"Dear Phil,

Deborah has forwarded to me your request re the Hebrew word selah with reference to your 'Songs of God' project. I did some research on this word some years ago, and one of my sources was a dissertation from an academic in East Anglia whose name, delightfully, was 'Winsome Tuke'. After all sorts of analysis such as frequency of occurrence in the relevant psalms, position of the word in all occurrences, and root meanings as far as anyone can judge them, she concluded that the term is an instruction to singers, musicians, ritual performers, amd the like to "LIFT UP". Next question: what were they to LIFT UP?

One suggestion is that it was the Ark of the Covenant carried along in procession to and from the temple in Jerusalem. Problem: there is no hint of such a ritual anywhere in the Bible. Another is that it refers to pilgrims etc mounting the steps leading up to the temple -- see psalms 120 onwards, with titles 'A song of ascents' which could equally as well be translated as 'A song for the temple steps' -- that is, at this point in a psalm everyone moves up one step. Problem -- does selah occur in these psalms???

General conclusion is that the word is, as you suggest, a musical term -- go up an octave or sing a descant, perhaps. My musical knowledge is too weak to permit me to judge how likely this is. So it may simply mean that the pilgrim at this point is to wave aloft his palm branch or whatever symbolic object he is carrying.

For what it is worth, I note that the word also appears in the Prophecy of Haggai, in his psalm which forms chapter 3 -- see verses 3 and 13.

Over to you! "

 

Also, Liz has her Jewish friensd Rachel looking into this matter ... What have I started???

 

Watch this space!

 

Phil