Reference: Sela
Hastings
SELA means 'rock,' 'cliff,' or 'crag,' and as a common noun is of frequent occurrence in Hebrew. In three or four passages (Jg 1:36; 2Ki 14:7; Isa 16 :l, and, according to some, Isa 42:11) the word appears to be a proper name. In Jg 1:36 a site near the southern end of the Dead Sea is required by the context. Such a site would also satisfy the requirements of 2Ki 14:7 and Isa 16:1. But it is not improbable that more than one place was known as 'the Cliff (or Crag).' It is therefore not Impossible, though far from certain, that the Sela of 2Ki 14:7 (cf. Joktheel) and Isa 16:1 is, as Revised Version margin in the latter passage suggests, and as many have held, the place known later as Petra (which also means 'rock'). Petra lay about 50 miles nearly due south of the Dead Sea, in a valley 'enclosed on every side by nearly perpendicular rocks of considerable height' and 'composed of sand-stone of many different colours.' It was the capital of the Nahat