Salt [nave]
SALTLot's wife turned into a pillar of, Gen. 19:26.
The city of Salt, Josh. 15:62.
The valley of salt, 2 Sam. 8:13; 2 Kin. 14:7.
Salt sea, Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:12; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 3:16; 12:3; 15:2.
Salt pits, Zeph. 2:9.
All animal sacrifices were required to be seasoned with, Lev. 2:13; Ezra 6:9; Ezek. 43:24; Mark 9:49.
Used in ratifying covenants, Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5.
Elisha casts, into the pool of Jericho, to purify it, 2 Kin. 2:20, 21.
Figurative
Of the saving efficacy of the church, Matt. 5:13; Mark 9:49, 50; Luke 14:34.
Of wise conversation, Col. 4:6.
Salt [ebd]
used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isa. 30:24, "clean;" in marg. of R.V. "salted"). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host's interests (Ezra 4:14, "We have maintenance from the king's palace;" A.V. marg., "We are salted with the salt of the palace;" R.V., "We eat the salt of the palace").
A "covenant of salt" (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil (Judg. 9:45). Sir Lyon Playfair argues, on scientific grounds, that under the generic name of "salt," in certain passages, we are to understand petroleum or its residue asphalt. Thus in Gen. 19:26 he would read "pillar of asphalt;" and in Matt. 5:13, instead of "salt," "petroleum," which loses its essence by exposure, as salt does not, and becomes asphalt, with which pavements were made.
The Jebel Usdum, to the south of the Dead Sea, is a mountain of rock salt about 7 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide and some hundreds of feet high.
SALT [smith]
Indispensable as salt is to ourselves, it was even more so to the Hebrews, being to them not only an appetizing condiment in the food both of man, (Job 11:6) and beset, (Isaiah 30:24) see margin, and a valuable antidote to the effects of the heat of the climate on animal food, but also entering largely into the religious services of the Jews as an accompaniment to the various offerings presented on the altar. (Leviticus 2:13) They possessed an inexhaustible and ready supply of it on the southern shores of the Dead Sea. [SALT [isbe]
SALT - solt (melach; halas, hals): Common salt is considered by most authorities as an essential ingredient of our food. Most people intentionally season their cooking with more or less salt for the sake of palatability. Others depend upon the small quantities which naturally exist in water and many foods to furnish the necessary amount of salt for the body. Either too much salt or the lack of it creates undesirable disturbance in the animal system. Men and animals alike instinctively seek for this substance to supplement or improve their regular diet. The ancients appreciated the value of salt for seasoning food (Job 6:6). So necessary was it that they dignified it by making it a requisite part of sacrifices (Lev 2:13; Ezr 6:9; 7:22; Ezek 43:24; Mk 9:49). In Nu 18:19; 2 Ch 13:5, a "covenant of salt" is mentioned (compare Mk 9:49). This custom of pledging friendship or confirming a compact by eating food containing salt is still retained among Arabic-speaking people. The Arabic word for "salt" and for a "compact" or "treaty" is the same. Doughty in his travels in Arabia appealed more than once to the superstitious belief of the Arabs in the "salt covenant," to save his life. Once an Arab has received in his tent even his worst enemy and has eaten salt (food) with him, he is bound to protect his guest as long as he remains.See COVENANT OF SALT.
The chief source of salt in Palestine is from the extensive deposits near the "sea of salt" (see DEAD SEA), where there are literally mountains and valleys of salt (2 Sam 8:13; 2 Ki 14:7; 1 Ch 18:12; 2 Ch 25:11). On the seacoast the inhabitants frequently gather the sea salt. They fill the rock crevices with sea water and leave it for the hot summer sun to evaporate. After evaporation the salt crystals can be collected. As salt-gathering is a government monopoly in Turkey, the government sends men to pollute the salt which is being surreptitiously crystallized, so as to make it unfit for eating. Another extensive supply comes from the salt lakes in the Syrian desert East of Damascus and toward Palmyra. All native salt is more or less bitter, due to the presence of other salts such as magnesium sulphate.
Salt was used not only as a food, but as an antiseptic in medicine. Newborn babes were bathed and salted (Ezek 16:4), a custom still prevailing. The Arabs of the desert consider it so necessary, that in the absence of salt they batheir infants in camels' urine. Elisha is said to have healed the waters of Jericho by casting a cruse of salt into the spring (2 Ki 2:20 f). Abimelech sowed the ruins of Shechem with salt to prevent a new city from arising in its place (Jdg 9:45). Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26).
Figurative:
Salt is emblematic of loyalty and friendship (see above). A person who has once joined in a "salt covenant" with God and then breaks it is fit only to be cast out (compare Mt 5:13; Mk 9:50). Saltness typified barrenness (Dt 29:23; Jer 17:6). James compares the absurdity of the same mouth giving forth blessings and cursings to the impossibility of a fountain yielding both sweet and salt water (Jas 3:11 f).
James A. Patch
SALT [bridgeway]
Apart from its obvious use in cooking, salt was widely used in the ancient world to keep perishable foods from decay (Lev 2:13; Job 6:6). Because of salt’s uses and characteristics, the Bible refers to it to illustrate aspects of the lives of Christians. Just as salt gives food a good taste, so the gracious qualities of their new life in Christ should make the speech of Christians wholesome and pleasant (Col 4:6). If they are living as they should, Christians will be a good influence in a world corrupted by sin (Matt 5:13; Mark 9:50).Because of its use in flavouring and preserving, salt symbolized a close and permanent relationship between people. It had a ceremonial use in making covenants, where it symbolized the unbroken loyalty that the two parties promised to the covenant (Lev 2:13; Num 18:19; 2 Chron 13:5; see COVENANT).
Sometimes, however, salt symbolized judgment and desolation. This was because salty land was useless for farming and became a barren waste. Therefore, a conqueror may have sprinkled salt over a destroyed city to symbolize that it was to be left in permanent desolation (Deut 29:23; Judg 9:45; Jer 17:6; Zeph 2:9).
The Israelites obtained their salt mainly from the region around the Dead Sea, which was itself so rich in salt that it was sometimes called the Salt Sea (Gen 14:3; Josh 3:16; 15:5; 18:19). Somewhere to the south-west of the Dead Sea, in the dry region of Israel known as the Negeb, was a place called the Valley of Salt (2 Sam 8:13; 2 Kings 14:7). (For further details of the Dead Sea and the Negeb see PALESTINE.)
