Thus, when Abimelech fights with Shechem in Judges 9, his sowing the city with salt (v. 45) is done as an act of warfare, thus sealing the defeat of the city. Salt in this case conveys the reality of destruction and marks out the razed locale as a veritable wasteland.

The heavenly wrath poured out against Sodom and Gomorrah is also associated with the salt of judgment: Lot’s wife, on account of her disobedience to God’s command in looking back to the city from which she and her family were rescued, is turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). It is very likely that these twin cities of wickedness were located in what is now the bottom of the Dead Sea, called in Scripture “the Salt Sea” (Num. 34:3; Josh. 15:2).

When the Lord warns Israel about walking in the way of infidelity that leads to the triggering of the “curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law” (Deut. 29:21), one of the ways that the land is described after the nation’s disobedience is that of a sickness in the soil: “The whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout” (v. 23, emphasis added). Our Lord Jesus also connects salt to God’s wrath when, having spoken of the reality of hell, He sternly warns, “For everyone will be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49).

It is instructive that when salt is applied to land (as in the cases above), it often means that the territory or domain is under God’s condemnation. Salt may be used to draw the borders of the land outside of God’s beneficent reign.

In contrast, salt can also serve as a vehicle of God’s benediction and restoration. For example, Elisha treats the toxic water supply of Jericho with salt: “Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it’” (2 Kings 2:21). Salt here means a fresh start for the city, the first to have been brought to ruin in the conquest of Canaan (see Josh 6).

In the tabernacle worship, God stipulated that salt be added to the grain offering (Lev. 2:13). Salt here is an emblem of the fellowship that is enjoyed between the Lord and His priestly people. In fact, with regard to the Levitical priests, God establishes what is called a “covenant of salt” (Num. 18:19), since communion with God belongs to the heart of being brought into a covenant bond with Him. Old Testament scholar L. Michael Morales writes, “Atonement is a means to an end, a means to Israel’s fellowship and communion with YHWH God.”