sela · crag, cliff

What it means

sela (סֶלַע) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “crag, cliff”.

Crag: a great, high rock; it also serves as a refuge.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A great mountain stone, a place of refuge.
2. YHWH, "my rock", a safe refuge.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Crag: a great rock, high and steep, where one can hide or hold out. In poetry, an image of YHWH as a refuge. It is also the name of the city of Sela.

• The crag that gave water at Kadesh Numbers 20:8Numbers 20:11
• “YHWH {is} my crag” Psalms 18:2Psalms 31:3Psalms 42:9
• Feet upon a crag Psalms 40:2
• Dwelling in the clefts of the rock Obadiah 1:3Judges 15:8
• A refuge for the hyraxes Psalms 104:18Proverbs 30:26

Historical and cultural background

At Kadesh YHWH told Moses to speak to the crag; Moses struck it with his staff twice, and much water came out (Numbers 20:8-11).

How we translate it

“Crag” 30 times and “crags” 5, “rock” 19 and “rocks” 4. This edition uses “crag” for סֶלַע where it must be told apart from צוּר, “Rock”: in Psalm 18:2 they are read together, “YHWH {is} my crag” and “my Rock”. Elsewhere it is often “rock” (“the clefts of the rock”, Obadiah 3; “a bare rock”, Ezekiel 24:7 and 26:4).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• crag ×30
• rock ×19
• crags ×5
• rocks ×4
• Sela ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Numbers×6
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×9
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×3
• Psalms×9
• Proverbs×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×7
• Jeremiah×7
• Ezekiel×4
• Amos×1
• Obadiah×1

• Numbers 20:8

  “Take the staff, and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the crag before their eyes so that it will give its water. And you shall bring out water for them from the crag and give drink to the community and to their livestock.”

• Numbers 20:10

  And Moses and Aaron assembled the assembly in front of the crag, and he said to them, “Hear, please, you rebels! Shall we bring out water for you from this crag?”

• Numbers 20:11

  And Moses raised his hand and struck the crag with his staff twice, and much water came out, and the community and their livestock drank.

• Numbers 24:21

  And he saw the Kenites and took up his poem and said, “Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the crag;

• Deuteronomy 32:13

  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; he made him suck honey from the crag and oil from the flint of the rock,

• Judges 1:36

  The border of the Amorite ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

• Judges 6:20

  The angel of Elohim said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and set them on this crag, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.

• Judges 15:8

  He struck them leg on thigh, a great blow; and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the crag of Etam.

• Judges 15:11

  Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the crag of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

• Judges 15:13

  And they said to him, “No, but we will surely bind you and give you into their hand, but we will certainly not put you to death.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the crag.

• Judges 20:45

  And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the crag of Rimmon; and they gleaned of them on the highways five thousand men, and they pursued closely after him as far as Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.

• Judges 20:47

  But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the crag of Rimmon, and they stayed at the crag of Rimmon four months.

• Judges 21:13

  And the whole community sent and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were at the crag of Rimmon, and proclaimed to them peace.

• 1 Samuel 13:6

  The men of Israel saw that they were in distress, for the people were hard pressed, and the people hid in the caves, in the thickets, in the rocks, in the strongholds, and in the cisterns.

• 1 Samuel 14:4

  Between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the post of the Philistines, there was a tooth of rock on one side and a tooth of rock on the other side; the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.

• 1 Samuel 23:25

  Saul and his men went to seek him. They told David, and he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard it, he pursued after David into the wilderness of Maon.

• 2 Samuel 22:2

  He said: “YHWH is my crag and my fortress and the one who brings me to safety;

• 1 Kings 19:11

  He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before YHWH.” And there, YHWH was passing by, and a great and strong wind was tearing mountains and breaking rocks before YHWH; YHWH was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake; YHWH was not in the earthquake.

• 2 Chronicles 25:12

  The sons of Judah also took captive ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the rock and threw them down from the top of the rock, and all of them were dashed to pieces.

• Nehemiah 9:15

  And bread from the heavens you gave them for their hunger, and water from the crag you brought out for them for their thirst; and you told them to go in to possess the land for which you had lifted up your hand to give it to them.

• Job 39:1

  Do you know the time when the mountain goats of the crag give birth? Do you watch over the calving of the does?

• Job 39:28

  On the crag it dwells and spends the night, on the tooth of the crag and the stronghold.

• Psalms 18:2

  YHWH is my crag and my fortress and the one who brings me to safety; my El, my Rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high refuge.

• Psalms 31:3

  For my crag and my fortress are you; and for the sake of your name you will lead me and guide me.

• Psalms 40:2

  And he brought me up from the pit of tumult, from the mud of the mire, and set my feet upon a crag; he made firm my steps.

• Psalms 42:9

  I will say to El my crag, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go about in mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

• Psalms 71:3

  Be to me a rock of dwelling to enter always; you have commanded to save me, for my crag and my fortress are you.

• Psalms 78:16

  And he brought out torrents from the crag, and made the waters flow down like rivers.

• Psalms 104:18

  The high mountains are for the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyraxes.

• Psalms 137:9

  Happy is he who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

• Psalms 141:6

  They have been thrown down by the sides of the rock, their judges, and they will hear my sayings, for they are pleasant.

• Proverbs 30:26

  the rock badgers, a people not mighty, and they make their house in the crag;

• Song of Songs 2:14

  My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding place of the steep slope, let me see your form, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your form lovely.

• Isaiah 2:21

  to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the crevices of the crags, from before the dread of YHWH and from the majesty of his loftiness, when he rises to terrify the earth.

• Isaiah 7:19

  And they will come and settle, all of them, in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the crags, and on all the thornbushes and on all the watering places.

• Isaiah 22:16

  ‘What do you have here, and whom do you have here, that you have hewn for yourself here a grave?’ (hewing on high his grave, carving in the crag a dwelling for himself).

• Isaiah 31:9

  And his crag will pass away because of terror, and his princes will be dismayed at the banner, declares YHWH, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

• Isaiah 32:2

  And each one will be like a cover from the wind and a hiding place from the downpour, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shade of a heavy crag in a weary land.

• Isaiah 33:16

  he will dwell on the heights; fortresses of crags will be his high refuge; his bread will be given, his waters sure.

• Isaiah 57:5

  who inflame yourselves among the terebinths, under every leafy tree, who slaughter the children in the streambeds, under the clefts of the rocks?

And 19 more times.