סָלָה

From the study of Psalm 119:118

Range of meaning

To treat as of no account, reject, toss aside. It is very rare, with this verse and Lamentations 1:15 as the only clear uses of this sense. Job 28:16 and 28:19 use a similar-looking verb for valuing or weighing against gold, which BDB treats as a separate word.

Against the English

BSB and WEB have "reject." ESV has "spurn," which adds a note of contempt that suits the word. KJV and YLT have "trodden down," a physical picture of trampling.

How it drifted

"Trodden down" is an old interpretive choice, not a later change in English. The KJV also uses treading language for the same verb in Lamentations 1:15, where the same verse goes on to describe God treading a winepress, and that surrounding image may have shaped the sense given to the rare verb.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it exoudenōsas, "you have treated as nothing," and the Vulgate has sprevisti, "you have despised." Both ancient translators understood contempt or dismissal, not trampling. BDB gives "make light of, toss aside." Because the word is so rare, certainty is limited.

From the study of Lamentations 1:15

Range of meaning

A rare verb. The simple form in Ps 119:118 means 'you spurn / reject all who stray from your statutes'. The intensive form here means to treat as worthless, toss aside, or discard (HALOT: 'reject'; BDB: 'make light of, toss aside').

Against the English

BSB, ESV and NIV 'rejected'; WEB 'set at nothing'; KJV and YLT 'trodden (under foot)'. The KJV reading follows a medieval Jewish interpretation that tied the word to mesillah, 'a (trodden) highway'. That makes the opening line anticipate the treading at the end.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 119:118. The Septuagint has exēren ('he removed') and the Vulgate abstulit ('he took away'). Medieval commentators such as Rashi explain it as 'trampled'.