Salt
מֶלַח (melach)
A mineral — outside the scope of Leviticus 11's dietary laws
Would you eat it?
Mentioned in 35 verses (KJV)
Description
Salt was too valuable and too essential to skip: every grain offering at the altar required it, and it was the one seasoning nearly every meal depended on. Its permanence — it doesn’t spoil or lose its essential nature easily — made it a natural symbol for a lasting agreement.
Key verses
“And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.”
Leviticus 2:13
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Matthew 5:13
Symbolism
A binding, lasting agreement — Israel’s offerings were sealed with ‘the salt of the covenant’ (Leviticus 2:13), and Jesus called his disciples ‘the salt of the earth’ (Matthew 5:13).
Fun fact
An unbreakable agreement was called a ‘covenant of salt’ in the ancient world — a phrase Scripture uses for God’s enduring promises to David and to the priesthood (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5).
All 35 referencesshow
- 1 Chronicles 18:12
- 2 Chronicles 13:5
- 2 Chronicles 25:11
- 2 Kings 2:20
- 2 Kings 2:21
- 2 Kings 14:7
- 2 Samuel 8:13
- Colossians 4:6
- Deuteronomy 3:17
- Deuteronomy 29:23
- Ezekiel 16:4
- Ezekiel 43:24
- Ezekiel 47:11
- Ezra 6:9
- Ezra 7:22
- Genesis 14:3
- Genesis 19:26
- James 3:12
- Jeremiah 17:6
- Job 6:6
- Joshua 3:16
- Joshua 12:3
- Joshua 15:2
- Joshua 15:5
- Joshua 15:62
- Joshua 18:19
- Judges 9:45
- Leviticus 2:13
- Luke 14:34
- Mark 9:49
- Mark 9:50
- Matthew 5:13
- Numbers 18:19
- Numbers 34:3
- Numbers 34:12