SALT. 337 



Hence, the ancient custom of sowing an enemy's city, when 

 taken, with salt in token of perpetual desolation (Judg. ix. 45); 

 and thus in after times, the city of Milan was burnt, rased, sown 

 with salt, and plowed by the exasperated emperor Frederic Bar- 

 barossa. 



From the mention not only of sulphur or brimstone, but of salt, 

 in Deut. xxix. 23, (comp. Gen. xiv. 3,) we may collect that the 

 latter, as well as the former, was employed by Jehovah in the de- 

 struction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and may thence explain what 

 is said of Lot's wife (Gen* xix. 26) : ' and she became a pillar of 

 salt;' namely, while she was looking with a wishful eye towards 

 Sodom, she was overtaken by the miraculous solo-sulphureous 

 shower, and thereby fixed and incrusted like a statue. 



In Syria, where there are salt lakes, it is probable that compari- 

 sons, and even proverbs were taken from the properties of the 

 article they furnished. So we read, ' salt,' that is, in its genuine 

 state, 'is good, but if it have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye 

 season it ? ' How restore to it any relish ? The surface of the salt 

 lakes, and also the thinner crust of salts, next the edges of the lakes 

 after rains, and specially after long continued rains, loses the saline 

 particles, which are washed away and drained off, yet it retains 

 the form and appearance of salt, like the most perfect. For this 

 reason, those who go to gather salt from the lakes, drive their 

 horses and carts over this worthless matter, and consequently 

 trample it into mere mud and dirt, in order to get some distance 

 into the lake, where the salt is better: and often they are obliged 

 to dig away the surface from thence, to obtain the salt, pure and 

 pungent. 



From Ezek. xvi 4, we learn that it was the custoni to salt the 

 bodies of new born infants ; which Jerom conceived to have been 

 intended to dry up the humidity and to close the pores of the skin. 

 It is said that the Tartars and the Greeks still continue the prac- 

 tice. 



Salt is the symbol of wisdom (Col. iv. 6), and of perpetuity and 

 incorruption (Numb, xviii. 19 ; 2 Chr. xiii. 5), as well as of barren- 

 ness and sterility. 



The only passage which remains to be noticed is Mark ix. 49, 

 'For everyone shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall 

 be salted with salt,' an exceedingly obscure passage, which has 

 exercised the ingenuity of many learned men. Jt would be useless 

 to bring before the reader the various conjectures and readings 

 which have been proposed of the text : they may be seen in Pole, 

 Wolfius, and Koecher; or the most likely ones may be seen in. 

 Bloomfield, who closes an elaborate note by stating that he cannot 

 accede to any interpretation he has yet seen : all being liable to ob- 

 jections. 



Without affirming that the following interpretation is free from 

 what appears to attach itself to all others, it is submitted as afford- 

 ing a good sense of the passage. 



