Dictionary of Bible Themes » 4000 Creation » 4300 Metals and minerals » 4357 salt
A basic commodity, used for seasoning and preserving food in biblical times.
The importance of salt in the sacrificial system
Leviticus 2:13 See also Exodus 30:34-35 The addition of salt to incense was probably to make it burn more easily and quickly; Ezra 6:6-10; Ezra 7:21-23; Ezekiel 43:22-24
The covenant of salt
Numbers 18:17-19 See also Leviticus 2:13; 2 Chronicles 13:4-5
Believers as the salt of the earth
Matthew 5:13 This teaching reflects the importance of salt as a preservative and seasoning. See also Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34-35
Salt as a symbol of desolation
Zephaniah 2:9 See also Deuteronomy 29:23-25; Job 39:5-6; Psalm 107:33-34; Jeremiah 17:5-8
Salt sown on arable land to render it worthless
Jeremiah 48:8-9 See also Judges 9:42-45
Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt
Genesis 19:23-26
The Dead Sea an important source of salt
Ezekiel 47:11
Salt water
James 3:9-12 See also Ezekiel 47:7-9
Salt herbs
Job 30:4
Practical uses of salt
Salt used as a seasoning
Job 6:6-7
Salt rubbed on newborn infants
Ezekiel 16:4
Symbolic use of salt
2 Kings 2:19-22
Figurative use of salt
Mark 9:49 See also Ezra 4:14 The literal translation of the Hebrew phrase used here is “... we eat the salt of the palace ...”; Colossians 4:6
Salt in place-names
The Dead Sea
Joshua 12:3 The Dead Sea was known as “the Salt Sea” or “the Sea of the Arabah” in biblical times. See also Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3-4,10-12; Deuteronomy 3:16-17; Joshua 3:15-16; Joshua 15:2-3,5-6; Joshua 18:19
The Valley of Salt
2 Samuel 8:13 See also 2 Kings 14:7 pp 2 Chronicles 25:11; 1 Chronicles 18:12
The City of Salt
Joshua 15:62
See also
1350 covenant with Israel's priests 4293 water 4306 minerals 4466 herbs and spices 5546 speech 5655 birth 6130 corruption 7322 burnt offering 7368 grain offering 7386 incense 7435 sacrifice, in OT
