Sela (Se'lah)

Meaning: rock

the capital of Edom, situated in the great valley extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea (2 Kings 14:7)

It was near Mount Hor, close by the desert of Zin. It is called “the rock” (Judg. 1:36). When Amaziah took it he called it Joktheel (q.v.) It is mentioned by the prophets (Isa. 16:1; Obad. 1:3) as doomed to destruction.

It appears in later history and in the Vulgate Version under the name of Petra.

“The caravans from all ages, from the interior of Arabia and from the Gulf of Persia, from Hadramaut on the ocean, and even from Sabea or Yemen, appear to have pointed to Petra as a common center; and from Petra the tide seems again to have branched out in every direction, to Egypt, Israel, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, and Damascus, and by other routes, terminating at the Mediterranean.”

(See Edom.)