Selah

Selah (Hebrew סֶלָה) is a term appearing 71 times in the Psalms and 3 times in Habakkuk 3, whose precise meaning remains one of the unsolved puzzles of Hebrew lexicography. The Septuagint consistently translates it as diapsalma ("interlude" or "pause"), and most modern scholars follow this interpretation, reading Selah as a liturgical or musical direction indicating a pause, a change of voice, or an opportunity for instrumental music between sections. Jerome and some later interpreters understood it as an instruction to raise the voice or intensify the music. The term may derive from the Hebrew root salal ("to lift up") or sela ("rock," as a firm support). Its theological function appears to invite the worshipper to pause and reflect on what has been sung or prayed.