What does "Selah" mean in the Bible?

Selah is a Hebrew word that appears 74 times in the Old Testament: 71 times in 39 psalms and 3 times in the prayer of Habakkuk 3, which is itself a psalm that ends with a musical note, "To the chief singer on my stringed instruments" (Habakkuk 3:19). The KJV, like most English translations, does not translate the word but simply carries it over. A familiar example is Psalm 46: "Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah" (Psalm 46:3). Its precise meaning was uncertain even in ancient times. Because it appears almost entirely in songs, and often in psalms whose titles address the chief musician, most scholars believe it was a musical or liturgical instruction. Some connect it to a Hebrew root meaning "to lift up," suggesting a call to raise the voice, the instruments, or the praise. The ancient Greek translation rendered it diapsalma, which seems to mean an interlude, and many understand it as a pause in the singing. Others suggest it marked a place for the congregation to respond or bow. Because Selah often follows a weighty statement, many devotional writers encourage readers to treat it as an invitation to stop and reflect on what has just been said. Psalm 46 shows why: after "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah" (Psalm 46:11), the reader is invited to pause and take those words to heart. We cannot be dogmatic about the word's exact sense, but that reflective approach fits naturally with the spirit of the Psalms.

Key Passages