Leviticus 2:13

shalt thou season with salt Salt, which is necessary for those who eat farinaceous food and a pleasant condiment with flesh meat, was freely used by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity. They brought it as an accompaniment of sacrifice, in accordance with the primitive view of sacrifice as the food of the gods (cp. ch. Leviticus 21:22). It may have been an element in the Jewish ritual from the earliest times. The phrase -salt of the covenant of thy God" indicates that a symbolical meaning was also attached to it. A covenant among ancient peoples was ratified by eating food together (Genesis 31:54) with which salt was generally taken. -There is salt between us" is in the mouth of the Arab a declaration of friendship and obligation; God's covenants with Levi and David are -covenants of salt" (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5); so here -the salt of the covenant" implies that the Israelite, by reason of his covenant relation with God, was bound to bring with his sacrifice the offering of a willing heart (Psalms 54:6; Psalms 119:108). Salt with sacrifice is enjoined in Ezekiel 43:24, and referred to Mark 9:49. For the remission of the tax on salt, cp. 1Ma 10:29; 1Ma 11:35, and Jos. Ant.xii. 3. 3. For the mola salsaof the Romans (Hor. Sat.ii. 3. 200) and other classical references to salt with sacrifice, see the Articles on Saltin HDB.and Enc. Bib.