Bags of salt. Creator: Paul S. Taylor.

Answers about…
salt in the Bible

In ancient Israel, what was the value of salt?

Salt held immense practical, economic, religious, and symbolic importance. It was not a cheap everyday commodity as it is today but a vital, valued resource that supported daily life, trade, rituals, and even political alliances. Its scarcity in some forms, durability, and multifaceted utility made it a cornerstone of society in the ancient Near East.

Salt was highly prized due to its essential role in food preservation and flavoring in a pre-refrigeration era, where spoilage posed a constant threat to survival. It functioned as a form of currency or wage supplement in various ancient cultures, giving rise to the English word “salary” from the Latin salarium (salt money, paid to Roman soldiers to purchase salt). While the Hebrew Bible does not explicitly describe salt as direct payment, related concepts appear: “eating the salt of the palace” in Ezra 4:14 implies receiving sustenance or pay from the king, underscoring salt's association with loyalty and provision.

Coarse or impure salt (e.g., from certain evaporation processes) had lower worth and might be discarded or used for lesser purposes, while “savory” or pure salt suited table, ritual, or medicinal needs was higher qaulity and of greater monetary value. State monopolies or taxes on salt (common in the broader ancient world) could elevate its effective cost.

High-quality salt or specialized varieties (e.g., for rituals or table use) commanded premium prices.

What else was salt used for?

Salt was indispensable for enhancing flavor (Job 6:6 questions, “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt?”) and for curing meats, fish (e.g., at sites like Taricheae on the Sea of Galilee), olives, vegetables, and other perishables. This extended shelf life was critical in a hot climate with limited storage options.

These uses made salt a survival tool, enabling longer travel, storage of seasonal harvests, and trade in preserved goods.

Salt was also used in industries like leather tanning, textile dyeing, cheese-making, and brick and ceramics glazing.

Q & A

Offerings

All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Leviticus 2:13).

Every grain offering (and by extension, other sacrifices) required salt (Leviticus 2:13: “Season all your grain offerings with salt… the salt of the covenant of your God”). It was also used with burnt offerings (Ezekiel 43:24) and incense (Exodus 30:35).

Large quantities were supplied for the Temple (Ezra 6:9, 7:22).

The requirement for salt in offerings likely combined practical preservation (preventing spoilage of food given to God) with symbolism.

Q & A

Medicinal and hygienic

Salt was used to disinfect wounds, as a mouthwash, or in a saltwater soak for ailments, and in general for purification.

Newborn children were rubbed with salt (Ezekiel 16:4) for purification or protection.

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Animal health

For better animal health, the lower quality salt was sometimes mixed with the fodder of the work animals.

Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. —Isaiah 30:24

Q & A

Elisha

Elisha used salt to heal polluted waters (2 Kings 2:19–22), symbolizing renewal. Whether the salt was purely used symbolically or actually helped with the purification is not totally clear, regardless this was primarily a long lasting Divine miracle.

Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the habitat of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.”

And he said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.”

So they brought it to him. And he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or barrenness any longer.’”

So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke. —2 Kings 2:19-22 LSB

Hospitality

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;” King James Version marginal note, “We are salted with the salt of the palace;” Revised King James Version, “We eat the salt of the palace”).

A “covenant of salt” (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation.

In a covenant-oriented culture, salt’s preservative quality symbolized endurance and fidelity.

Q & A

Disciples

Jesus likened His disciples to salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matthew 5:13).

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men. —Matthew 5:13

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Destruction of agricultural land

When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil (Judges 9:45).

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Salt sources

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.

The Dead Sea in general as a rich source of salt. Ocean water in evaporation ponds is another source. Other salt came from foreign traders.

Archaeology

Archaeological evidence shows salt installations supported local and possibly export markets.

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Article Version: March 27, 2026