| Easton's Bible Dictionary Used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isaiah 30:24, "clean;" in marg. of R.V. "salted"). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Leviticus 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" (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 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 (Matthew 5:13). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil (Judges 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 Genesis 19:26 he would read "pillar of asphalt;" and in Matthew 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 Sea (Joshua 3:16). See DEAD SEA. Salt, The city of One of the cities of Judah (Joshua 15:62), probably in the Valley of Salt, at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Salt, Valley of A place where it is said David smote the Syrians (2 Samuel 8:13). This valley (the' Arabah) is between Judah and Edom on the south of the Dead Sea. Hence some interpreters would insert the words, "and he smote Edom," after the words, "Syrians" in the above text. It is conjectured that while David was leading his army against the Ammonites and Syrians, the Edomites invaded the south of Judah, and that David sent Joab or Abishai against them, who drove them back and finally subdued Edom. (Comp. title to Psalm 60.) Here also Amaziah "slew of Edom ten thousand men" (2 Kings 14:7; Comp. 8:20-22 and 2 Chronicles 25:5-11). Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (n.) The chloride of sodium, a substance used for seasoning food, for the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, and is also produced, by evaporation and crystallization, from sea water and other water impregnated with saline particles. 2. (n.) Hence, flavor; taste; savor; smack; seasoning. 3. (n.) Hence, also, piquancy; wit; sense; as, Attic salt. 4. (n.) A dish for salt at table; a saltcellar. 5. (n.) A sailor; -- usually qualified by old. 6. (n.) The neutral compound formed by the union of an acid and a base; thus, sulfuric acid and iron form the salt sulfate of iron or green vitriol. 7. (n.) Fig.: That which preserves from corruption or error; that which purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction; as, his statements must be taken with a grain of salt. 8. (n.) Any mineral salt used as an aperient or cathartic, especially Epsom salts, Rochelle salt, or Glauber's salt. 9. (n.) Marshes flooded by the tide. 10. (n.) of or relating to salt; abounding in, or containing, salt; prepared or preserved with, or tasting of, salt; salted; as, salt beef; salt water. 11. (n.) Overflowed with, or growing in, salt water; as, a salt marsh; salt grass. 12. (n.) Fig.: Bitter; sharp; pungent. 13. (n.) Fig.: Salacious; lecherous; lustful. 14. (v. t.) To sprinkle, impregnate, or season with salt; to preserve with salt or in brine; to supply with salt; as, to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt cattle. 15. (v. t.) To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber. 16. (v. i.) To deposit salt as a saline solution; as, the brine begins to salt. 17. (n.) The act of leaping or jumping; a leap. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia COVENANT OF SALT solt (berith melach; halas, classical Greek hals): As salt was regarded as a necessary ingredient of the daily food, and so of all sacrifices offered to Yahweh (Leviticus 2:13), it became an easy step to the very close connection between salt and covenant-making. When men ate together they became friends. Compare the Arabic expression, "There is salt between us"; "He has eaten of my salt," which means partaking of hospitality which cemented friendship; compare "eat the salt of the palace" (Ezra 4:14). Covenants were generally confirmed by sacrificial meals and salt was always present. Since, too, salt is a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant. So offerings to Yahweh were to be by a statute forever, "a covenant of salt for ever before Yahweh" (Numbers 18:19). David received his kingdom forever from Yahweh by a "covenant of salt" (2 Chronicles 13:5). In the light of these conceptions the remark of our Lord becomes the more significant: "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another" (Mark 9:50).
Edward Bagby Pollard 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 (Leviticus 2:13 Ezra 6:9; Ezra 7:22 Ezekiel 43:24 Mark 9:49). In Numbers 18:19 2 Chronicles 13:5, a "covenant of salt" is mentioned (compare Mark 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 Samuel 8:13 2 Kings 14:7 1 Chronicles 18:12 2 Chronicles 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 (Ezekiel 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 Kings 2:20 f). Abimelech sowed the ruins of Shechem with salt to prevent a new city from arising in its place (Judges 9:45). Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt (Genesis 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 Matthew 5:13 Mark 9:50). Saltness typified barrenness (Deuteronomy 29:23 Jeremiah 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 (James 3:11 f).
James A. Patch SALT, CITY OF (`ir ha-melach; Codex Alexandrinus hai pol(e)is halon): One of the six cities in the wilderness of Judah mentioned between Nibshan and Engedi (Joshua 15:62). The site is very uncertain. The large and important Tell el-Milch (i.e. "the salt hill"), on the route from Hebron to Akaba, is possible. SALT, PILLAR OF See LOT; SALT; SIDDIM; SLIME. SALT, VALLEY OF (ge' ha-melach): The scene of battles, firstly, between David or his lieutenant Abishai and the Edomites (2 Samuel 8:13 1 Chronicles 18:12 Psalm 60, title), and later between Amaziah and these same foes (2 Kings 14:7 2 Chronicles 25:11). It is tempting to connect this "Valley of Salt" with es Sebkhah, the marshy, salt-impregnated plain which extends from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the foot of the cliffs, but in its present condition it is an almost impossible place for a battle of any sort. The ground is so soft and spongy that a wide detour around the edges has to be made by those wishing to get from one side to the other. It is, too, highly probable that in earlier times the whole of this low-lying area was covered by the waters of the Dead Sea. It is far more natural to identify ge' ha-melach with the Wady el-Milch ("Valley of Salt"), one of the three valleys which unite at Beersheba to form the Wady ec-Ceba`. These valleys, el-Milch and ec-Ceba, together make a natural frontier to Canaan.
E. W. G. Masterman CITY OF SALT See SALT, CITY OF. PILLAR OF SALT See SLIME; LOT. SALT SEA See DEAD SEA. SALT, COVENANT OF See COVENANT OF SALT. SEA, SALT See DEAD SEA. |  | Multi-Version Concordance Salt (45 Occurrences) Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Mark 9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. (Root in WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Mark 9:50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Luke 14:34 Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it? (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) James 3:11 Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? (See NIV) James 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water. (WEB KJV WEY ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Genesis 14:3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea). (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Genesis 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 30:35 and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy: (WEB JPS ASV BBE DBY YLT NAS RSV NIV) Leviticus 2:13 Every offering of your meal offering you shall season with salt; neither shall you allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Numbers 18:19 All the wave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your seed with you." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Numbers 34:3 then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom, and your south border shall be from the end of the Salt Sea eastward; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Numbers 34:12 and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to its borders around it.'" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Deuteronomy 3:17 the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border of it, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Deuteronomy 29:23 and that the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, and a burning, that (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over right against Jericho. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 12:3 and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward, the way to Beth Jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah: (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 15:2 Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 15:5 The east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. The border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 15:62 Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En Gedi; six cities with their villages. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Joshua 18:19 The border passed along to the side of Beth Hoglah northward; and the border ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the south border. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Judges 9:45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Samuel 8:13 David got him a name when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Kings 2:20 He said, "Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it." They brought it to him. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Kings 2:21 He went out to the spring of the waters, and threw salt into it, and said, "Thus says Yahweh,'I have healed these waters. There shall not be from there any more death or miscarrying.'" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Kings 14:7 He killed of Edom in the Valley of Salt ten thousand, and took Sela by war, and called its name Joktheel, to this day. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 1 Chronicles 18:12 Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt eighteen thousand. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Chronicles 13:5 Ought you not to know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Chronicles 25:11 Amaziah took courage, and led forth his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck of the children of Seir ten thousand. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ezra 4:14 Now because we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not appropriate for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and informed the king; (WEB JPS ASV DBY YLT RSV) Ezra 6:9 That which they have need of, both young bulls, and rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ezra 7:22 to one hundred talents of silver, and to one hundred measures of wheat, and to one hundred baths of wine, and to one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Job 6:6 Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Job 30:4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food. (WEB JPS ASV BBE DBY NIV) Job 39:6 Whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? (WEB JPS ASV BBE DBY NAS RSV NIV) Psalms 59:17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing praises: For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy. Psalm 60 For the Chief Musician; 'set to' Shushan Eduth. Michtam of David, to teach; and when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the Valley of Salt twelve thousand. (ASV) Psalms 60:1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "The Lily of the Covenant." A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again. (WEB BBE DBY WBS YLT RSV NIV) Psalms 107:34 and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. (WEB JPS ASV BBE DBY NAS RSV NIV) Jeremiah 17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ezekiel 16:4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all. (Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ezekiel 43:24 You shall bring them near to Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Ezekiel 47:9 It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters are come there, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes. (See NIV) Ezekiel 47:11 But the miry places of it, and its marshes, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) |
