What Is the Significance of Salt in the Bible?

There are two ways salt commonly features in the Old Testament. While it is not overly symbolic, the times where it does come up have to do with the end of life, or being cut off.

The most common instance of salt in the Old Testament is in reference to the Salt Sea, also commonly known as the Dead Sea. This body of water has such a high salt content that when people go swimming there, they float. The water is also undrinkable, and nothing lives in it. There are no wildlife or plants in the Dead Sea, and there are no population centers or significant animal life in the area.

Some theologians believe the Dead Sea is located in the general location of Sodom and Gomorrah, though this idea is debated.

When God decided to destroy those two wicked cities, He searched for righteous men and found none. He spared Lot and anyone in his family as an act of love toward Abraham, since they were cousins. The angels who warned Lot when it was time to flee said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away” (Genesis 19:17b).

While they fled, Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. She died and was cut off from the earth, along with the wicked land that she loved more than her own life and the God who was offering them a chance at life. Just like someone would salt a field in order to prevent bad things from growing, God metaphorically salted the earth of Sodom and Gomorrah, since it yielded only evil – or bad – fruit.

This practice of salting the earth is the other common negative use of salt in the Old Testament. In the Book of Judges, the Hebrews salt the land of their enemies, so that nothing could grow in their fields again. In these contexts, salt is a thing which cuts off life, or cuts someone off from God’s blessings. These meaning changes when God begins directly making covenants with the Nation of Israel.

While an overabundance of salt can quelch life, an appropriate amount of it can preserve something, making it last longer. God has the meat of sacrifices sprinkled with salt, which represents God’s ability to preserve a covenant. For example, the promise between God and Aaron’s priestly descendants is that they will always be able to live off the Temple. “All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you” (Numbers 18:19). The covenant between God and David, that his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel forever, is also described as a covenant of salt (2 Chronicles 13:4-6). God is the salt in this symbol, making a promise last longer by His ability to uphold it forever through His eternal nature, His righteousness, and His holiness.

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The use of salt as a point of symbolic comparison continues into the New Testament, though it changes. Jesus begins using salt in His ministry when He speaks about His followers. Saltiness is used to describe an aspect of a person’s passion, righteousness, and love for the Lord and people.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses this comparison right after the Beatitudes. He discusses those who are blessed, and then states, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet” (Matthew 5:13). The salt here has a two-fold meaning. First, as it relates to the Israelites, they were called to a covenant with God to be His nation that represents Him to the world so that all may come to know Him. They had stopped living for Him in the way God called them to, as if salt had stopped flavoring or preserving food. For believers, it also presents a challenge. If someone who follows Jesus is not living a life that reflects their relationship with God, can they be used for Him?

The writers of the epistles also use salt as a kind of imagery to represent internal characteristics.

Colossians 4:5-6 - “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

In this passage, salt can be seen as kind, edifying words. Paul wrote this letter to the Church at Colossae which was a Gentile church. This book is full of an explanation of the basics of Christianity, and when he mentioned salt, he was giving them guidance on how to behave in a Christ-like manner; he encouraged them to conduct themselves with wisdom, which includes speaking in a manner that is gracious. Salt is a symbol for words that enhance conversation.

James 3:10-12 - “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”

The Book of James is a book that addresses how believers should behave. In this section of the letter, James writes about the danger of speaking foolishly or maliciously, and the serious consequences of speaking badly. Another common and relevant theme in James is that external behavior is an indicator of the heart, and can be an indicator of a wolf in sheep’s clothing or a non-believer. Here, the salt is symbolic of bad words. In nature, the sources of fresh water and salt water are not the same, and a freshwater spring does not yield salt water. A heart focused on the things of God will not be constantly speaking curses.

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Understanding what salt means at different points in the Bible can deepen the lessons that God is trying to impart, clarify various concepts, and ensure that a false teacher cannot twist its symbolism. This last point is key. Often, false teachers will take something that means one thing in one section of the Bible, but may mean something else somewhere else due to changes in time, culture, or the human author. They do this for their own selfish purposes, and not because it is God’s will or message.

In life, salt can be flavor-enhancing or can make life-giving water undrinkable and toxic to the body. It can preserve, or it can render soil dead. Just as it has multiple purposes and uses in life, God uses it in multiple ways in His Word to communicate with humanity.

A Prayer for Saltiness

Holy Father,

Thank you for being with me. Thank you for giving me life, and for my salvation through Jesus Christ. Lord, please help me to be more like Jesus, and to be more like what He asked me to be. Help me to be salt and light in a world that does not know You, so that I may have a testimony worthy of Your Son. Use my saltiness to help share the Gospel, so that others may come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Be with me, oh God. I also ask that my words be like fresh water in a desert, rather than salt water. Help me to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

In Your name I pray,

Amen.

Sources

Feinburg, Margaret. Taste and See. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019.

Latham, James. The Religious Symbolism of Salt. Paris: Beauchesne, 1982. 

Trumbull, H. Clay. The Covenant of Salt. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag, 2018.

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