' The capital city of Edom, which is here referred to, bears the name Sela elsewhere in the Old Testament, as in 2 Kings 14 : 7; Isa. 42 : II. But in Josephus (e. g,., Antiquities, IV, iv, 7) it is called Petra, the Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew Sela. By the name of Petra it is commonly known today.

Whether Petra and Sela are the same location is a subject of ongoing debate among biblical scholars and archaeologists. The name "Sela" means "rock" in Hebrew, while "Petra" means "rock" in Greek, leading many historical texts to use them interchangeably to describe the Edomite capital. Ancient sources, including the Jewish historian Josephus, often identified the biblical Sela with the Nabataean city of Petra in modern-day Jordan. However, modern archaeological evidence suggests they may be distinct: many scholars now believe that the biblical "Sela" referred to in the Old Testament (associated with the Edomites) is actually a mountaintop stronghold located at es-Sela, about 50 kilometers north of Petra. While the Nabataeans eventually built their famous rock-cut city (Petra) in the same general region, the "Sela" of the Iron Age likely occupied a different, more defensible plateau. Thus, while they are linguistically identical and geographically close, they represent different historical eras and potentially different physical sites within the Land of Edom.