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 New International Dictionary of the English Language

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.