Rock
סֶ֫לַעStrong’s H5553sela (se-la)
Appears in 52 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Sela is the Hebrew word usually translated “rock”, “rock my” and “rock of”. It appears in 52 verses of the Old Testament.
“Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.”
Meaning
- The Rock
- Crag, cliff, rockcrag, cliff · as stronghold of Jehovah, of security (fig.)
How it's translated
- the rock 14
- rock 7
- rock my 5
- a rock 5
- rock of 4
- in the rock 3
- from a rock 3
- at rock of 2
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Psalms 9
- Judges 7
- Isaiah 7
- Jeremiah 7
- Numbers 4
- Ezekiel 4
17 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Numbers 20:10And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
- Numbers 20:11And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
- Numbers 24:21And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.
- Deuteronomy 32:13He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
- Judges 6:20And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.
- Judges 15:8And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.
All 52 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
סֶ֫לַע sela · rock
The Rock Sela (H5554)
סֶ֫לַע sela · crag
1) crag, cliff, rock 1a) crag, cliff 1b) as stronghold of Jehovah, of security (fig.)
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “rock” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
ROCK, noun
[Gr., Latin rupes, from the root of rumpo, to break or burst. If this is not the origin of rock I know not to what root to assign it.]
- A large mass of stony matter, usually compounded of two or more simple minerals, either bedded in the earth or resting on its surface.
- In Scripture, figuratively, defense; means of safety; protection; strength; asylum.“The Lord is my rock” 2 Samuel 22:2
- Firmness; a firm or immovable foundation. Psalms 28:1
- A species of vulture or condor.
All definitions and other forms of “rock”
- A fabulous bird in the Eastern tales.
ROCK, noun
ROCK, verb transitive
- To move backward and forward, as a body resting on a foundation; as, to rock a cradle; to rock a chair; to rock a mountain.
- To move backwards and forwards in a cradle, chair, etc.; as, to rock a child to sleep.
- To lull to quiet.
ROCK, verb intransitive
To be moved backwards and forwards; to reel.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.