Salah
Sa'lah (Heb. She'lach, שֶׁלִח, something sent forth, as a javelin or a sprout; Sept. and New Test. Σαλά, but Σάλα in 1Ch 1:24; A.V. "Shelah" in 1Ch 1:18,24), the only named son of the patriarch Arphaxad, and the father of Eber (Ge 10:24; Ge 11:12-15; 1Ch 1:18,24), B.C. cir. 2478. See SALA. "The name is significant of extension, the cognate verb (שָׁלִה) being applied to the spreading out of the roots and branches of trees (Jer 17:8; Eze 17:6). It thus seems to imply the historical fact of the gradual extension of a branch of the Shemitic race from its original seat in Northern Assyria towards the river Euphrates. A place with a similar name in Northern Mesopotamia is noticed by Syrian writers (Knobel, in Genesis 11); but we can hardly assume its identity with the Salah of the Bible. Ewald (Gesch. 1, 354) and Von Bohlen (Introd. to Gels. 2, 205) regard the name as purely fictitious, the former explaining it as a son or offspring, the latter as the father of a race. That the name is significant does not prove it fictitious, and the conclusions drawn by these writers are unwarranted."
