Letter 28. To Marcella.

An explanation of the Hebrew word Selah (or Diapsalma). This word, rendered by the LXX "διάψαλμα" and by Aquila "ἀ εί", was as much a crux in Jerome's day as it is in ours. "Some," he writes, "make it a 'change of metre,' others 'a pause for breath,' others 'the beginning of a new subject.' According to yet others it has something to do with rhythm or marks a burst of instrumental music." Jerome himself inclines to follow Aquila and Origen, who make the word mean "forever," and suggests that it betokens completion, like the "explicit" or "feliciter" in contemporary Latin mss. Written at Rome a.d. 384.

Jerome sets down in Latin word for word Origen's letter so that Marcella may more fully know what he meant on the proposed question.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. What you have received must be returned with interest, and a strong delay gives birth to usury. You asked for our opinion on the Diapsalmata; we have made the excuse of the brevity of the letter, and said that the matter cannot be explained in writing. But what good does it do for my hardworking self? Your desire is stimulated further by silence. Therefore, not to prolong things further, consider a few things as many.

2. Some have said that Diapsalma is a change of meter; others a pause of breath; some the beginning of another meaning. There are those who consider it a distinction of rhythm; and because the Psalms were then sung with joined voice to the organ of that certain musical variety, they consider it a silence. None of this seems to us; since the eagle, who is the most diligent expounder of Hebrew words, always renders "Sela," that is, "Diapsalma," which is written from Samech, Lamed, He: and we find "Diapsalma" placed at the end of the Psalms also, as it is in the third: "You have broken the teeth of sinners: salvation is from the Lord, and thy blessing is upon thy people, sela," that is, "always:" And in the twenty-third: "Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts himself is the king of glory, always." On the contrary, it is nowhere to be found in many verses of psalms, to wit, in the thirty-sixth, and seventy-seventh, and one hundred and eighteenth. Again the ninth Psalm is distinguished by a Diapsalmatic Song: for certainly if, as seems to some, the Diapsalma is the beginning of silence, it cannot be a Song of silence.

3. From which we observe that this word connects things both superior and inferior, or at least it teaches that things which have been said are eternal, as in the third (book): "Many say to my soul, there is no salvation for him in his God, forever." And again: "With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain, ever." And in the fourth: "Why do you love vanity and seek lies? forever." And again, "What you say in your hearts, and you are pricked in your beds, forever." And in Habakkuk: "God will come from the south, and the Holy One from mount Pharan, forever." And below: "Thou hast spoken oaths to the tribes, forever." [Hab. 3]

4. However, we should know that among the Hebrews, at the end of the books, it is customary for one of three things to be added, namely, Amen or Sela or Salom, which expresses peace. Hence Solomon is called pacific. Therefore, just as we usually insert 'Explicit' or 'Feliciter' or something of this kind after completing a small work, for the purpose of marking the distinction with the following matter, so the Hebrews, in order to confirm what has been written, are accustomed to say Amen, or to signify that what is to be written is to be remembered for all time and put down Sela, or when they testify that something has been brought to a happy conclusion, they add peace at the end.

5. We have drawn these things from the depths of the Hebrew source, not pursuing streams of opinions, nor being frightened by the variety of errors with which the whole world is filled; but desiring both to know and to teach what is true. And if this does not seem burdensome to you, I will interpret the words of Origen on the Diapsalm in the very words themselves, so that if you disdain new wine, you may at least be led by the authority of old wine.

6. Often seeking reasons why in some Psalms a Diapsalm is interposed, I observed most diligently in Hebrew, and compared it with the Greek, and I found that where the Hebrew language has the word 'Sela', but the Greek always, or something of this kind, there the Seventy, and Theodotion, and Symmachus translated a Diapsalm. Nor does it hurt to affirm what we say with examples. In the seventy-fourth Psalm, whose beginning is: "We will confess to thee, O God, we will confess, and we will invoke thy name; after it," I confirmed his columns, "with Seventy and Theodotion, and Symmachus is Diapsalma; for which, with Aquila, "I weighed his columns always." In the Fifth Edition: "I am the one who prepared his columns, always." But in the Sixth: "I confirmed his columns continually." Moreover, in Hebrew, after Amuda, which is, his columns, Selah. And again in the seventy-fifth [psalm], the beginning of which is: "God is known in Judah; in Israel his name is great," we find according to the Septuagint and Theodotion, after "shield and sword, and war," [a musical term] "A Psalm." According to Symmachus, after "shield and sword and war" [the same musical term]. This is rendered by Aquila as "shield and sword and war forever." In the Fifth [Revised Greek] Edition, after "shield and javelin and war forever." In the Sixth, after "shield and sword and war to the end." And again in the Hebrew [original] after "Do not destroy," which is "A psalm" [follows]. And in the same psalm after that place, 'that he may make safe the meek of the earth,' a Diapsalm: the same at Symmachus' [version] Diapsalm; and always at the eagle's [version]; also at Quinta's [version]. But in the sixth [Psalm], to the end. And in the Hebrew [version], after "Anie Ares", which means "meek of the earth," is "Sela." And so when we came upon the opinion of each edition, we annotated this. However, I leave it to your judgment whether they meant some kind of musical chant or a change in rhythm, which they translated as Diapsalm.

7. Up to now Origen, whom we preferred to follow in this debate through ignorance rather than to be considered unwise by not following him.