SEIRAH

Edom (cf. Gn 32' 'the land of Seir, the field of Edom'). 2. "Mt. Selr' mentioned in Jos IS'" among the points defining the boundaries of Judah. The name may still be preserved in that of the ruins at SUHs, S.'W. of Kiriath-jearim.

SEIRAH. — The place to which Ehud escaped after Icilling Eglon, king of Moab (Jg 3»); unidentified.

SEL A means ' rocls, '' cliff, ' or ' crag, ' and as a common noun is of frequent occurrence in Hebrew. In three or four passages (Jg 1» 2 K 14', Is 16', and, according to some, Is 42") the word appears to be a proper name. In Jg 1" a site near the southern end of the Dead Sea is required by the context. Such a site would also satisfy the requirements of 2 K 14' and Is 16'. But it is not improbable that more than one place was Itnown as 'the Cliff (or Crag).' It is therefore not im-possible, though far from certain, that the Sela of 2 K 14' (cf. Joktheel) and Is 16' is, as RVm In the latter passage suggests, and as many have held, the place known later as Petra (which also means ' rock '). Petra lay about 60 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 Nabataeans from the close of the 4th cent. B.C. to the beginning of the 2nd cent. a.d. (when it became a Koman province), and during that period a busy com-mercial centre. For some description of the buildings of Petra and the rock architecture which have given the city great fame, see Baedeker's Palestine, p. 206, and the literature there cited. 'The general character of the buildings at Petra is that of the debased Roman style of the 3rd and 4th centuries a.d.' Apart from the Biblical statements enumerated above, the history of Fetra tiefore the Nabataean period is unknown.

G. B. Gray. SELA-HABOIAHLEKOTH.— A rock or cliS in the wilderness of Maon, at which Saul 'returned from pursuing after David' (1 S 23™). The site is uncertain. SELAH. — A Heb. liturgical-musical term of uncertain meaning. It occurs (a) in the OT, (6) in the Psalms of Solomon, and (c) in the Jewish (Synagogue) Liturgy. In the OT the term occurs 74 times altogether in the Heb. text, viz. 71 times in the Psalter, and 3 in the Prayer of Habakkuk (Hab 3). In the Gr. tr. of the OT (the LXX) the Gr. equivalent idiapsalma) does not always appear in the same places as in the Heb. text; the number of occurrences is also rather larger in the LXX. Possibly in some cases 'Selah' has fallen out of the Massoretic text accidentally. In the Psalms of Solomon 'Selah' occurs twice (17" and IS'"), and in the oldest parts of the Jewish Liturgy (apart from the canonical Psalms, which are incorporated in it) 5 times (3 in the 'Eighteen Blessings' and 2 in the morning Benedictions preceding the Shema').

Various explanations have been proposed as to the etymology and meaning of the term. Perhaps the least improbable of these is that which regards it as a liturgical direction intended to indicate the place for lifting up the voices in a doxology at the close of a section; such a doxology might have been sung at the end of a psalm or section of a psalm which liturgically was separated from the following (cf. the use of the 'Gloria' at the end of Psalms or [in the case of the 119th] at the end of sections of the Psalm in Christian worship). Or it may have been a direction to the orchestra — ' Lift up! loud!' — to strike in with loud music (after the soft accompaniment to the singers' voices) during a pause in the singing. Other theories, such as that it represents a Heb. transliteration of a Greek word {e.g. psaile) or an abbreviation of three words, have little probability. The meaning of the LXX rendering (dia^ psalma) is as uncertain as that of the Heb. word itself.

G. H. Box. SELED.— A Jerahmeelite (1 Ch 2").

SELF-SURRENDER

SELEMIA. — One of Ezra's swift scribes (2 Es 14«).

SELEMIAS (1 Es 9") =Shelemiah, Ezr 10".

SELEUOIA. on the coast of Syria, at the mouth of the river Orontes, was the port of the great Antioch. It was strongly fortified. Situated on the S. side of Mt. Pieria, and on the level ground at its foot, it was protected on three sides both naturally and by fortifications. It was captured by Ptolemy Euergetes (1 Mac 11*), and afterwards recovered (in b.c. 219) by Antiochus the Great. Its greatness increased in Roman times. Then it was a 'free city.' Commercially its importance In the Levantine trade was of the highest. Extensive remains of the ancient city exist. A. Souter.

SELEUCUS.— 1. Seleucus I, (mkafor), originally a cavalry oflicer of Alexander the Great, became satrap of Babylon on the death of the king. After some vicissi-tudes his position there was securely established in B.C. 312, from which date the Seleucid era was reckoned (1 Mac l'«). The battle of Ipsus, b.c. 301, made him master of Syria and great part of the East. He founded Antioch and its fortified port Seleucia (1 Mac 11*), and is said by Josephus (Ant. xii. iii. 1) to have conferred on the Jews the privileges of citizenship. He is the 'one of his [i.e. the king of Egypt's] princes' (Dn 11=). He died b.c. 280. — 2. Seleucus II. {CaUinicus, b.c. 246-226), son of Antiochus Soter, is entitled the 'king of the north' in the passage (Dn ll'-s) which alludes to the utter discomfiture of the Syrian king andthe capture of Seleucia. — 3. Seleucus in. {fferaunus, b.c. 226-223), "one of his [Seleucus ii.'s] sons' (Dn 11'°), was murdered during a campaign in Asia Minor; the struggle with Egypt was continued by his brother Antiochus (Dn ll'»-'«). — 4. Seleucus IV. (.Philopator; but Jos., Ant. XII. iv. 10, calls him Soter), son of Antiochus The Great, reigned b.c. 187-176. He it was who despatched Heliodorus to plunder the Temple (2 Mac S'-'", cf. Dn 112").— 5. Seleucus V. (b.c. 125-124) and VI. (b.c. 95-93) are not of importance to the Biblical student. The four first-named belong to the ' ten horns ' of Dn 7".

J. Taylor.

SELF-CONTROL.— See Temperance.

SELF-SURRENDER.— 1. The military metaphor underlying the idea of ' surrendering oneself ' is sugges-tive. The keys of the citadel of self are handed over to the rightful Lord, whose most powerful weapons of attack have been the entreaties of His love. The surrender is not for demolition, but for restoration in beauty and strength. It is a voluntary act, implying the 'pre-senting' of ourselves unto God, and involving the 'presenting' of our 'members as instruments of right-eousness unto God' (Ro 6", cf. 12'). A similar con-ception finds expression in the Gr. wort} (hypotassesthai) which RV tr. 'to be subject to,' lit. 'to set oneself under.' The proof that in 'the mind' the ruling element is not 'flesh' but 'spirit' is the absence of hostility to God; this state of 'life and peace' is the result of 'subjecting oneself to the law of God' (Ro 8"-; cf. 10', Ja 4'). In He 12> this unreserved surrender of ourselves to God is represented as the only worthy rec-ognition of His absolute claims, and as, therefore, thoroughly consistent with a due regard to the develop-ment of our own personality. To 'be in subjection to the Father of spirits' is indeed to 'live.' 'Such absolute subjection is crowned by the highest blessing. True life comes from complete self-surrender ' (Westcott, Com., in toe).

2. It depends upon the point of view whether the Christian ideal of life is described as the life of self- surrender or as the life of self-development. Repent-ance and faith are alike acts in which, at one and the same time, self-will is surrendered and the higher self is realized.

'Our wills are ours, we know not how, Our wills are ours to make them 'Thine.'

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