What is the Covenant of Salt?

Salt is both an infrequent and important symbol in the Bible. In three places the Old Testament makes reference to a “covenant of salt.” What exactly is this covenant? How does this covenant relate to the other major covenants of the Bible? What might the covenant of salt contribute to a broad understanding of covenant theology? These questions have largely gone unexplored. This paper aims to compile data and suggest a few summary conclusions. Specifically, the covenant of salt is an important secondary concept in creating a biblical theology of covenant and helps give another perspective in articulating God’s covenantal relationship with his people. In short, the covenant of salt does not break new ground in covenant theology but helps solidify the foundation that covenant theology stands on. This paper will show this first by surveying the symbolic significance of salt in Scripture and the broader ancient world, second by highlighting the significance of the covenant of salt in redemptive history, and third by finding the place of the covenant of salt in covenant theology. 

I.  The Symbolic Significance of Salt 

Salt is rich with symbolic meaning in the ancient world, and the wide range of salt’s symbolism in Scripture has been well documented.¹ The term “salt” appears both in the Old Testament (as a noun מֶ֫לַח; as a verb מָלַח “he salted”) and in the New Testament (as a noun ἅλας; as a verb ἁλίζω “to salt”). Not including its appearance in place-names, Biblical authors use salt in at least five different contexts. Many uses of salt have overlapping symbolism, and sometimes it is not clear which symbols are being evoked. 

Flavor

Most basically, salt is used to enhance flavor. In Exodus 30:35, salt is added to the incense burnt in the tent of meeting in reference to a pleasing aroma to the Lord. In Job 6:6, Job asks if food can be eaten with salt. This rhetorical question communicates Job’s loss of appetite in the face of his grief and turmoil. In the New Testament, Jesus asks his audience at the sermon on the mount what would happen if salt were to lose its taste (ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας μωρανθῇ, ἐν τίνι ἁλισθήσεται;).² In the context of flavor, salt is a positive symbol for that which is desirable and enhances what it is added to. 

Judgement

Salt appears regularly in contexts of judgement in the Bible. The first appearance of salt in the Bible is in Genesis 19:26, when Lot’s wife turns back to Sodom and becomes a pillar of salt. Jesus references this account in Luke 17:20-37, heeding his listeners to “remember Lot’s wife,” as he describes the cataclysmic establishment of the kingdom of God by the arrival of the Son. In Deuteronomy 29, Moses renews the covenant with Israel at Moab before they enter the promised land. From 29:18-28 Moses warns the people not to break the covenant by committing the same sins the Canaanites were guilty of. If they do, God will burn the land with brimstone and salt like Sodom and Gomorrah on account of their covenant unfaithfulness (Dt 29:23,25). In Judges 9:45, Abimelech sows a field with salt after defeating his enemies in judgement against them, rendering the land infertile. In 2 Chronicles 13:4-7, Abijah king of Judah addresses Jeroboam’s army, recalling the fact that God gave David and his descendants the throne over all Israel forever by a “covenant of salt” (בְּרִ֥ית מֶֽלַח). Because Jeroboam and Israel had defied this covenant with David, rebelled against Judah, and driven out the priests and Levites to establish their own pagan cult, Abijah warns them to not fight against the Lord on threat of defeat and judgement (13:12). In Mark 9:49, Jesus concludes a long warning about judgement for sin with the phrase “everyone will be salted with fire.” More will be said about this later. Lastly, in Matt 5:13 and Mark 9:50 Jesus states that salt which loses its saltiness is thrown out and trampled, signifying judgement.

As a final and broader note on salt signifying judgement, salt is an essential ingredient in all offerings presented to the Lord. Leviticus 2:13 emphasizes the role of salt in grain offerings: “You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Ezekiel 43:24 describes adding salt to burnt offerings. Josephus, as he describes the sacrificial system in Jerusalem, asserts that salt is added to all animal sacrifices.³ The Qumran community during the time of Jesus also stresses the incorporation of salt in all offerings.⁴ Thus, salt was intimately connected with the sacrifices and associated with God’s cultic system for satisfying his judgement. On a broader level, salt can symbolize judgement and destruction and is often related to fire. 

Purification 

Salt is also seen as a purifying agent in the Bible. In Exodus 30:35, the incense salt is added to is said to be “pure and holy.” Leviticus 2:13 falls within the larger context of God teaching his priests what they must do to purify themselves in his presence.⁵ Numbers 18:19 expands on this. God instructs the priesthood how to be pure in order to come into his presence; this comes after God’s wrath had struck down thousands in a plague. Purity was a life-or-death matter, and Israel’s priests were invited into God’s presence according to the “covenant of salt.”⁶ In 2 Kings 2:20, the prophet Elisha adds salt to water for the city of Jericho and it becomes pure. Ezekiel 16 makes reference to babies being “salted” (וְהָמְלֵ֨חַ֙) potentially as a literal or symbolic cleansing. In Mark 9:49, Jesus’ statement could be a sort of crucible reference, mixing images of purification and judgement: fire (and salt by extension) either destroys or refines. Jesus then adds the charge in 9:50 “have salt within you,” potentially as a call to purify one’s heart. Thus, salt can carry the symbolic meaning of a purifying agent. 

Fellowship

Contrasting with its connection with judgement, salt can also represent fellowship between two parties. Repeatedly, salt is related to covenantal bonds. Outside of the Bible, both Greek and Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) cultures made a practice of sharing salt with or without a meal as a sign of peace and fellowship, sometimes alongside a formal covenant.⁷ Thus, a “covenant of salt” could be called a “covenant of fellowship,” naming the covenant by its sign in a similar way Genesis 17 speaks of the covenant of circumcision. This gives insight into God referring to his relationship with Aaron and his descendants in Numbers 18:19 as a covenant of salt. God said to Aaron that he and his descendants would bear iniquity connected to the sanctuary as priests (18:1). Rather than a curse, so long as the priesthood operated according to God’s instruction their role of mediation was in fact a gift (18:7). Rather than receiving a portion of the promised land, the priests were given the best portions of the people’s tithes and offerings (implicitly this includes salt). Better yet, they enjoyed unique proximity to God; he himself was their portion (18:20). Thus, they enjoyed a special fellowship with God—a covenant of salt between them. 

The connection between salt and fellowship is clearly seen in two other Old Testament passages. In 2 Chronicles 13, Abijah king of Judah addresses Jeroboam’s army before they go to war. He recalls the fact that “the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt” (2 Chr 13:5). Ahijah then rebukes Jeroboam for breaking the union of Israel by leading the northern tribes in rebellion against David’s throne, then further breaking fellowship with God and David by rejecting the temple and establishing their own pagan priesthood. On this basis, Ahijah warns Israel that they will suffer defeat and judgement if they continue to rebel against the house of David (13:12). It happens just as Ahijah warns (13:16-20). Finally, in Ezra 4:14 enemies of Judah warn the king of Persia that Jerusalem is rebuilding its walls and will likely rebel, ceasing to pay tribute; they warn Persia on the basis of “we eat the salt of the palace,” meaning they are servants of the king and loyal to his rule. All these examples show the symbolic meaning of fellowship, and specifically covenantal union, associated with salt in the Bible. 

Preservation or permanence 

As one commentator notes, “the most fundamental idea [behind the ancient usage of salt] is that of permanence.”⁸ Salt’s preservative function in curing meat with was essential to survival. Because of this, salt as a symbol of preservation or permanence transcends almost every other symbolic use it has. With respect to judgement, salt adds the connotation of permanent destruction. Lot’s wife, as well as Sodom and Gomorrah, become symbols of irredeemable ruin, never to be rebuilt or resurrected. The field which Abimelech salted was intended to never again produce life. The sacrifices offered to God with salt were the symbolic recipients of God’s whole and eternal judgement in place of his sinful people. When Jesus asks if salt were to lose its saltiness, it is as if to ask if salt were to not be permanent and fail to be salt. It would be judged worthless and then disposed of.⁹

With respect to fellowship and purification, salt adds the opposite connotation of permanent union and purity. The sacrifices which the priests offered with salt represented a total payment for sin—the trespasses were fully and forever covered. The covenant of salt with Aaron and his descendants was one that represented their enduring fellowship with God. This is clear from the repetition of עֹולָם and the extension of this relationship to Aaron’s offspring. The same idea is clear in 2 Chr 13:5. Ahijah says “the God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons.” Again, the covenant of salt appears with עֹולָם and includes the recipient’s descendants in the promise of unity. Here, too, Ahijah draws special attention to Israel as a united kingdom, not David as king of Judah. It is on the basis of this covenant’s permanence that Ahijah rebukes and warns Jeroboam for breaking fellowship. 

In summary, salt is a multifaceted symbol in the Bible. While it can represent positive things like fellowship and purity or negative things like judgement, it always represents permanence. Often biblical authors mix meanings when using salt as a symbol. Salt is also associated with covenant and can be used as a sign of a covenantal relationship. This background survey helps explain the place of the covenant of salt in the whole narrative of redemptive history, and the significance of the covenant of salt in covenant theology. 

II.  The Significance of Salt in Redemptive History 

No biblical scholar would claim that salt is a primary symbol in Scripture’s account of redemptive history. Compared to Biblical theological themes like sanctuary, the sea, kingship, or mediator, salt is much smaller. However, salt as a symbol connects to the theme of covenant, which is perhaps the most central theme throughout the Bible.¹⁰ The Bible itself is organized by progressive revelations of succeeding covenants, culminating in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. For this reason, salt’s contribution to redemptive history is worth exploring. It is a small but beautiful harmony in the great symphony of redemptive history. 

Salt’s introduction in the Biblical narrative is the destruction of Lot’s wife in the judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah. The original audience of Genesis would have already known salt’s function in preserving food and possibly also have understood salt as a sign of fellowship. Portraying salt as a sign of judgement would have been an expansion of what it could symbolize. Moses reiterates this new meaning in his address to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 29 as he prepares the people to enter into the promised land. If they forsake God and turn to the sin and idolatry of the Canaanites just like Lot’s wife, they will face the same judgement. The land will be burned with brimstone and salt, an apocalyptic act of de-creation turning what was meant to be a holy land, a new Eden, into wilderness—a judgement which in fact comes to pass almost a millennium later (Jer 17:6). 

However, God also uses salt as a symbol of hope. Salt was used in the practices God established for his people to know him and draw near to him. The sacrificial system acknowledged Israel’s sin—they were disobedient and unclean—but did not leave them in it. The sacrifices they brought to their priests were a sign of their need for God’s forgiveness and a tangible expression of faith that they could be made right with him. Through salt’s use in the ceremonial law, the Bible marries the concepts of judgement, purity, fellowship, and permanence together. 

The combining of salt and covenant in the Bible is significant. God uses salt as a sign of his everlasting covenant bond with his people in Numbers 18:19. While there is no mention of salt in the Bible’s descriptions of God’s covenant with David, Ahijah is not wrong to describe God’s covenant with his grandfather as a “covenant of salt.” God had sworn everlasting unity between himself and David’s throne, so much so that David’s son would be his own son, and he promised that David’s house would rule over Israel forever. It was a true, permanent covenant of fellowship. These same ideas are central to the prophetic expectations of the new covenant. The new covenant will be everlasting and David shall rule over a reunited Israel (Ezek 37:24-28, Jer 33:7). The new covenant will truly cleanse Israel of their sin (Jer 33:8, Ezek 33:23). The new covenant will permanently establish the fellowship between God and his people. Jeremiah merges the restoration of David’s throne and the priesthood: “For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever” (Jer 33:17-18). In short, the new covenant will be a true, fulfilled, and everlasting covenant of salt. It is also important to note that this new covenant promise includes inward transformation: God’s people will be given a new heart (Ezek 36:26) and will have the law written on it (Jer 31:33); his people will have one heart of unity and he will put fear of himself in their hearts forever so they can never again turn away (Jer 32:39-40). 

Jesus is the complete fulfillment of the new covenant, and so it should not be surprising that his person and work can be understood in terms of a covenant of salt. Considering Jesus as the fulfillment of a covenant of salt helps emphasize the way Jesus marries judgement, purity, fellowship, and permanence. 

Jesus uses salt as an example in his teaching. As listed above, Jesus tells his disciples “You are the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13). Commentators debate which symbolic meaning Jesus intends behind this reference.¹¹ However, when viewed in connection with Jesus’ next comment “You are the light of the world,” (5:14) and Isaiah’s use of light in his anticipation of the messiah and the new age, this saying takes on covenantal significance. Jonathan Pennington writes: 

This combination of the metaphors of salt and light and Isa 40-66 together evoke the biblical story line and hope for the new-covenant time when God will return and bring his comfort and beauty throughout the world. Jesus is the great prophet and suffering servant spoken of in Isaiah, bringing light and grace to all the world. By extension, then, Jesus’ disciples are likewise the heralds of this new-covenant message, the sons of the prophet, the friends of the bridegroom. The promise of coming persecution in 5:11-12 and the specific connection of Jesus’ disciples with the persecuted prophets before them put all of this discussion in the context of the Old Testament prophets, who were heralds and reinforcers of the covenant.¹²

Jesus’ teaching, therefore, is both a warning and a commissioning. For salt to lose its saltiness in a covenantal context would be an abandonment of permanence, fellowship, and purity. It is as impossible and useless as hidden light. Instead, his followers are to let their light shine as they remain “salty.” This covenant faithfulness has clear and necessary consequences. Jesus’ followers are to make their saltiness known. 

Jesus’ words in Mark 9:49-50 develop this idea further. His comment “Everyone will be salted with fire” when understood in the context of covenant draws out the dual nature of the covenantal relationship. Jesus regularly teaches on the separation of the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the good fish from the bad fish, the crops from the thorns. 1 Peter picks up on this separation when talking about fire separating gold from dross. The fire that judges covenant breakers is the same fire that refines and purifies covenant keepers.¹³ Everyone will be subject to fire; in other words, all will be tested. Jesus’ disciples must prove themselves to be salty. Then Jesus exhorts them “Have salt in yourselves” (Mk 9:50). This picks up on a theme from the prophets’ anticipation of the new covenant: inward heart transformation. This is the only way they might withstand the trial by fire. Again, this inward saltiness has clear and necessary consequences. Jesus’ disciples are to be at peace with one another. 

Most significantly, Jesus embodies the covenant of salt in his own death on the cross. Jesus offers himself as the true atoning sacrifice. He was the payment for sins the whole priesthood and ceremonial law pointed forward to. He was the proper offering, and though there is no description of salt included in any account of his death and burial, Luke 23:56 does say that women came to treat his body with spices and ointments. Whether the symbol of salt is present or not, the symbolic meaning of salt is certainly present. Jesus received the full and permanent judgement of the Father in his death, paid for in full. Upon his resurrection, he proclaims to Mary and his disciples “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). Permanent, unbreakable fellowship had been established; his people had been made wholly pure. The curtain of the temple had been torn in two; all were now welcome into the Holy of Holies. And when Jesus appeared to his disciples following the resurrection, Acts describes it as him literally “salting with” them (συναλιζόμενος, the ESV translates this “staying with”).¹⁴ The new covenant is certainly a covenant of salt, and is now fulfilled and administered by Christ. 

It is in light of Christ’s fulfillment of the new covenant that the “covenant of salt” can briefly be related to covenant theology at large. 

III.  The Covenant of Salt and Covenant Theology

As a first point of clarity, it is important to state that “the covenant of salt” is not a separate dispensation of the covenant of grace like the Mosaic or Abrahamic covenants. It should not be understood as a single specific covenant at all. It is true that Numbers 18:19 speaks of a “covenant of salt” God makes with Aaron and the priesthood, but in light of the observations above, it is probably best to think of this statement as a summary description of God’s covenantal commitment rather than a specific, literal covenant God makes with the Aaronic priesthood. The same interpretation can be applied to God’s covenant of salt with David. The expression “covenant of salt” is simply another way of describing a covenantal relationship. 

Still, the covenant of salt as a concept makes a helpful contribution to covenant theology by providing a new perspective from which we can view the covenant of grace. The covenant of salt vividly shows the double-edged nature of God’s covenants. For those who remain faithful, God’s covenant is one that lasts forever as a bond of eternal fellowship. For those who forsake God, the covenant becomes a fiery judgement against them; transgressors are burned and eradicated, forever cut off. Salt provides a clear, tangible sign of the meaning of a covenantal bond. 

This is in line with Meredith Kline’s understanding of “ordeal signs.” An ordeal sign is a physical act or ceremony which represents the bond made in a covenant and also points to the consequence of breaking the covenant. The ordeal sign of the old covenant is circumcision.¹⁵ Genesis 17 describes the significance of circumcision: Abraham and his descendants will cut off their foreskins as a symbol of God removing them from the rest of the world to be his people, and the blood of that procedure points to the need of blood to be shed for them to be right with God. However, circumcision also points to the consequence of breaking the covenant: being cut off from the family of Abraham and the people of God. 

Under the new covenant, the ordeal sign is baptism.¹⁶ Baptism is a sign to believers that they have passed through the waters of death and have arrived at eternal salvation, just as Noah passed through the flood waters, Israel passed through the Red Sea, and Christ passed through death into life. But to those who apostatize their baptism becomes a mark of judgement. They will be consumed by the flood waters and by death. 

Salt symbolically functions in the same way when thinking through a covenant of salt. For those who remain faithful, being “salted” represents receiving purification and sharing fellowship with God forever. For those who break the covenant, they will be “salted” in the same manner as Lot’s wife and the offerings consumed in fire as they pay for their own sin. With respect to the new covenant, Christ himself is the one who was “sown with salt” in judgement so that we might “salt with” God forever. 

In conclusion, the covenant of salt is an important secondary concept in creating a biblical theology of covenant and helps give another perspective in articulating God’s covenantal relationship with his people. The mixed symbol of salt as a means of either judgement or purification, a sign of permanence, and a mark of fellowship make it a natural sign for a covenantal relationship. The Bible uses salt in a number of ways, and while there is no one specific covenant of salt, it is a helpful insight to think of our relationship to God through Christ and the new covenant as a type of covenant of salt. 

¹ James E. Latham, The Religious Symbolism of Salt. Paris: Beauchesne, 1982.

² Kurt Aland et al., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012), Mt 5:13.

³ Josephus, Antiquities, 3.9.1. 

⁴ Robert Kugler, and Kyung S. Baek. Leviticus at Qumran : Text and Interpretation. (Leiden: Brill, 2016). 55, 81, 86. 

⁵ R.E. Averbeck, “Sacrifices and Offerings,” from Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker. A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship (Downers Grove: InverVarsity Press, 2003), 710. 

⁶ Timothy R. Ashley. The Book of Numbers. Second edition. New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022), 207. 

⁷ Gordon J. Wenham. The Book of Leviticus. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1979), 71. Everett Gill. “Jesus’ Salt Covenant With the Eleven.” Review & Expositor 36, no. 2 (April 1939): 197–98. 

⁸ Jonathan T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing : A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 165-166. 

⁹ In Mark 9:50, Jesus’ question is phrased ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ⸀ἅλας ἄναλον γένηται (literally “if salt were to become not-salt”)  

¹⁰ Ligon Duncan, “Foreward” in Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Guy P. Waters, J. Nicholas Reid, and John R. Muether (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 24.

¹¹ Ken B. Montgomery, “‘You Are the Salt of the Earth’ (Matthew 5:13): Influence or Invitation?” Themelios 48, no. 1 (April 2023): 79–91, 81-87. 

¹² Pennington, Sermon, 166. 

¹³ R. T. France. The Gospel of Mark. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 385. 

¹⁴ Everett Gill. “Jesus’ Salt Covenant With the Eleven.” Review & Expositor 36, no. 2 (April 1939): 197–98.

¹⁵ Meredith Kline. “Oath and Ordeal Signs – Part 1” Westminster Theological Journal 27, no. 2 (May 1965): 115-139

¹⁶ Meredith Kline. “Oath and Ordeal Signs – Part 2” Westminster Theological Journal 28, no. 1 (November 1965): 1-37

Works Cited 

R.E. Averbeck, “Sacrifices and Offerings,” from Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker. A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. Downers Grove, Illinois: InverVarsity Press, 2003.

Timothy R. Ashley. The Book of Numbers. Second edition. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2022. 

Ligon Duncan, “Foreward” in Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Guy P. Waters, J. Nicholas Reid, and John R. Muether (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 24.

R. T. France. The Gospel of Mark. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2002. 

Everett Gill. “Jesus’ Salt Covenant With the Eleven.” Review & Expositor 36, no. 2 (April 1939): 197–98. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAiFZK171120000720&site=ehost-live.

Josephus, Antiquities. Translated by William Whiston. London: University of Cambridge, 1737. eBook. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/index.html 

Meredith Kline. “Oath and Ordeal Signs – Part 1” Westminster Theological Journal 27, no. 2 (May 1965): 115-139 https://meredithkline.com/klines-works/articles-and-essays/oath-and-ordeal-signs-part-1/

Meredith Kline. “Oath and Ordeal Signs – Part 2” Westminster Theological Journal 28, no. 1 (November 1965): 1-37 https://meredithkline.com/klines-works/articles-and-essays/oath-and-ordeal-signs-part-2/

Robert Kugler, and Kyung S. Baek. Leviticus at Qumran : Text and Interpretation. The Text of the Bible at Qumran. Leiden: Brill, 2016. https://search-ebscohost-com.rts.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1456039&site=ehost-live.

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

Ken B. Montgomery, “‘You Are the Salt of the Earth’ (Matthew 5:13): Influence or Invitation?” Themelios 48, no. 1 (April 2023): 79–91. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAiREM230512000530&site=ehost-live.

Jonathan T. Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing : A Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017. 

Gordon J. Wenham. The Book of Leviticus. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1979.