Selah (biblical figure)

Selah
Portrait from Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553)
Born1691 AM
Died2124 AM (aged 433)
ChildrenEber, and other sons and daughters
ParentArpachshad (or Cainan)

Selah (Hebrew: שֶׁלַח, romanizedŠélaḥ), Salah or Sala (Greek: ΣαλάSalá) or Shelah is an ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites according to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. He is thus one of the table's "seventy names". He is also mentioned in Genesis 11:12–15, 1 Chronicles 1:18–24, and Luke 3:35–36.

In the ancestral line from Noah to Abraham, he is the son of Arpachshad (in the Masoretic Text and Samaritan Pentateuch[1][full citation needed]) or Cainan (in the Septuagint) and the father of Eber. The name Eber for his son is the original eponym of the Hebrew people, from the root ‘abar (עבר‎, עָבַר), "to cross over".[2][3][4]

The Gospel of Luke and Book of Jubilees both agree with the Septuagint in making Selah the son of Cainan, adding the information that his mother was Milcah (the daughter of Madai), while his wife is named as Mu'ak, daughter of Kesed (another son of Arphachsad).

The death age of Selah is given as 433 (Masoretic),[5] 460 (Septuagint),[6] and 460 (Samaritan).[7]

Henry M. Morris states that Arpachshad, Selah, and Eber are listed as the most important sons since they were in the line of the promised Seed of the Woman.[8]

  1. ^ Interlinar Pentateuch
  2. ^ Benyamim Tsedaka, The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, Bereshith 11 (ISBN 0802865194)
  3. ^ Mark Shoulson, The Torah: Jewish and Samaritan versions compared (Hebrew ed.), בראשית 11 (ISBN 1904808182)
  4. ^ For differences in genealogy between the Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Septuagint, see Genealogies of Genesis § Genesis chrono-genealogy.
  5. ^ The Koren Jerusalem Bible: The Hebrew/English Tanakh, בראשית 11, Koren Publishers (ISBN 9653010557)
  6. ^ The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, Genesis 11, by Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton
  7. ^ The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah: First English Translation Compared with the Masoretic Version, Bereshith 11, by Benyamim Tsedaka (ISBN 0802865194)
  8. ^ Morris, Henry M. (1976). The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House. p. 259.

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