Sela ( he, סֶּלַע, transliteration ''Sela‛'', meaning '' rock''; ar, السلع, ''es-Sela‛''; el, πέτρα, 'Petra'; la, petra) is a geographical name encountered several times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Second Book of Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the book ...

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

. It has been widely identified with the archaeological site of es-Sela' or as-Sila‛ in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Tafilah Governorate Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة) is one of the governorates of Jordan, located about 180 km south-west of Amman, Jordan's capital. Tafilah Governorate is bordered by Karak Governorate to the north, Ma'an Governorate to the east and south, Aqa ...

Hebrew Bible

Book of Judges

In the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdo ...

there is a mention of a place called Sela, "the rock", on the southern border of the lands still inhabited by the

Amorites The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...

after the partial conquest of

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

by the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

().

Second Book of Kings

2 Kings sets "Sela" in the great valley extending from the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Ban ...

to the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

(). It was near Mount Hor, close by the desert of Zin. In the story of King

Amaziah of Judah Amaziah of Judah (pronounced , ; el, Αμασίας; la, Amasias), was the ninth king of Judah and the son and successor of Joash. His mother was Jehoaddan () and his son was Uzziah (). He took the throne at the age of 25, after the assassinat ...

, a place called Sela is mentioned. Amaziah is described as throwing 10,000 Edomites to their death from the heights of Sela (; ). When Amaziah took Sela he called it

Joktheel Joktheel is a geographic name used in the Hebrew Bible, meaning "God-subdued". In Judah A place named Joktheel is mentioned in the Book of Joshua and the ] as located in the Shephelah, low country of Judah between Mizpah and Lachish (). In Edo ...

(also spelled Jokteel ( Jewish Publication Society of America Version, JPS) and Jectehel ( DRB)) (q.v.) ( he, יָקְתְאֵל, Yoqtĕ-’Ēl, "the blessedness of God" or "subdued by God";Meanings from ''Net Bible Study Dictionary''
Joktheel
/ref> la, Jectehel) or Kathoel ( el, Καθοηλ) in the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

Isaiah and Obadiah

Places called Sela are mentioned by the prophets

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

and

Obadiah Obadiah (; he, עֹבַדְיָה – ''ʿŌḇaḏyā'' or – ''ʿŌḇaḏyāhū''; "servant of Yah", or "Slave of Yah HVH) is a biblical prophet. The authorship of the Book of Obadiah is traditionally attributed to the prophet ...

( 15:1; 16:1; ) as to cry in joy in glory of the Lord.

Archaeological site

Sela in Edom is widely identified with the ruins of Sela, east of

Tafileh Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة, 'aṭ-Ṭafīlah, ), also spelled Tafila, is a town with a population of 27,559 people in southern Jordan, located southwest of Amman. It is the capital of Tafilah Governorate. It is well known for having green gard ...

(identified as biblical Tophel) and near

Bozrah Busaira ( ar, بُصَيْرا, buṣayrā; also Busayra, Busairah or Buseirah) is a town in Tafilah Governorate, Jordan, located between the towns of Tafilah ( Tophel) and Shoubak and closer to the latter. Bozrah ( he, בָּצְרָה ; also ...

, both Edomite cities in the mountains of Edom, in modern-day

. As of 2012 Sela, or as-Sila‛ or es-Sela in Arabic, had not yet been excavated, but surveys of the plateau have produced surface finds from the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

through to the

Nabataean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern L ...

period, but mainly from the time of the Edomites of the Hebrew Bible: the early to mid-first millennium BCE. This is the period when Sela was most extensively inhabited. Archaeologists have found on a rock face at es-Sila' the so-called "

Nabonidus Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-naʾid'', meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in ...

Inscription", named after the last king of the

Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bei ...

(ruled c. 556–539 BCE).

Confusion with Petra

Sela appears in later history and in the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

under the name of 'Petra', the Greek translation of the Semitic word 'Sela', meaning 'rock'. This led to Sela being confused with the

city of Rekem, known to the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

world as

Petra Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to the mountain of Ja ...

External links

Sela
in the Nabataean period and photos of the site; at Nabataea.net
Photos of Sela'
at the

American Center of Research The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past and ...

References

* {{reflist Edom Former populated places in Southwest Asia Tafilah Governorate