Sela: =Se'lah, 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"
(Judges 1:36) When Amaziah took it he called it Joktheel (q.v.) It is
mentioned by the prophets
(Isaiah 16:1; Obadiah 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
centre; and from Petra the tide seems again to have branched out in
every direction, to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe,
Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, and Damascus, and by other routes, terminating
at the Mediterranean."
