Sela
Sela is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Sela, meaning "rock" or "cliff" in Hebrew, appears as a significant Edomite stronghold in the Old Testament. In 2 Kings 14:7, King Amaziah of Judah conquered Sela after defeating ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt, renaming it Joktheel, "a name it retains to this day." This military victory demonstrated Judah's periodic dominance over its southeastern neighbor. Isaiah 16:1 references Sela in an oracle concerning Moab, instructing, "Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of Daughter Zion." This suggests Sela served as a significant administrative and commercial center on trade routes connecting Arabia, Edom, and Judah. The city's identity as a natural fortress, its name emphasizing its rocky, clifftop setting, made it a formidable military objective and a symbol of Edomite power and pride. The prophetic judgments against Edom in Obadiah and Jeremiah 49 speak of those who "dwell in the clefts of the rock," imagery that evokes Sela's dramatic terrain and warns against the false security of human strongholds.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Sela is most commonly identified with Umm el-Biyara, a dramatic flat-topped mountain rising above the later Nabataean city of Petra in southern Jordan. Excavations by Crystal-M. Bennett in the 1960s uncovered remains of an Edomite settlement on the summit dating to the seventh century BC, including a royal seal impression bearing the name of the Edomite king Qos-Gabr. The site's sheer cliff faces, rising over 300 meters above the valley floor, perfectly suit the biblical description of an impregnable rock fortress. Some scholars alternatively identify Sela with es-Sela, a rocky promontory north of Bozrah (modern Buseirah). The Petra region today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Jordan's most visited archaeological destinations.
Verse Appearances (2)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]