# The salt of the covenant



## Unoriginalname (Mar 30, 2012)

In Leviticus 2:13 does the phrase salt of the covenant tie into any other concept? It struck me as an odd phrase and one that I cannot find elsewhere in scripture. Is there any greater significance to this phrase other than that salt was needed for the grain offering?


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## PuritanCovenanter (Mar 30, 2012)

> Leviticus 2:13And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt,.... Which makes food savoury, and preserves from putrefaction; denoting the savouriness and acceptableness of Christ as a meat offering to his people, he being savoury food, such as their souls love, as well as to God the Father, who is well pleased with his sacrifice; and also the perpetuity of his sacrifice, which always has the same virtue in it, and of him as a meat offering, who is that meat which endures to everlasting life, Joh_6:27 and also the grave and gracious conversation of those that by faith feed upon him, Mar_9:50.
> 
> 
> neither shall thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering; this seems to suggest the reason why salt was used in meat offerings, and in all others, because it was a symbol of the perpetuity of the covenant, which from thence is called a covenant of salt, Num_18:19 namely, the covenant of the priesthood, to which these sacrifices belonged, Num_25:13 hence the Targum of Jonathan,"because the twenty four gifts of the priests are decreed by the covenant of salt, therefore upon all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt:"
> ...






> [Numbers 18:19
> 
> ...it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee, and thy seed with thee: an incorruptible, inviolable, durable covenant, which should last for ever, even until the Gospel dispensation or world to come should take place; and it would remain ever before the Lord in his sight, who would take care it should never be made void, but stand fast with Aaron and his posterity as long as his priesthood endured.



Pulpit Commentary...



> Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt. Salt is commanded as symbolizing in things spiritual, because preserving in things physical, incorruption. (cf. Mat_5:13 Mar_9:49 Luk_14:34 Col_4:6) It is an emblem of an established and enduring covenant, such as God"s covenant with his people, which is never to wax old and be destroyed, and it is therefore termed the salt of the covenant of thy God. Hence "a covenant of salt" came to mean a covenant that should not be broken. (Num_18:19 2Ch_13:5) The use of salt is not confined to the meat offering. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. Accordingly we find in Eze_43:24, "The priest shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering. Salt was to be used with all the sacrifices. Cf. Eze_43:24 Mar_9:49.
> I WHAT IT RECALLED TO THE MIND OF THE OFFERER. The eating of bread and salt together being the ceremony which finally ratified an agreement or covenant (as it still is in Arabia), salt was associated in the mind of the Israelite with the thought of a firmly established covenant. Each time, therefore, that the priest strewed the salt on the offering there would have been a reminder to all concerned of the peculiar blessing enjoyed by the nation and all members of it, of being in covenant with God, without which they would not have been in a state to offer acceptable sacrifices at all.
> II WHAT IT SYMBOLIZED. The effect of salt being to preserve from corruption, its being sprinkled on the sacrifice taught the offerer the necessity of purity and constancy in his devotion of himself to God.
> III THE SYMBOL TAKEN UP AND APPLIED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
> ...



K&D


> Leviticus 2:12-13
> 
> The presentation of the minchah “made of these things,” i.e., of the different kinds of pastry mentioned in Lev_2:4-7, resembled in the main that described in Lev_2:1-3. The מִן הֵרִים in Lev_2:9 corresponds to the מִן קָמַץ in Lev_2:2, and does not denote any special ceremony of heaving, as is supposed by the Rabbins and many archaeological writers, who understand by it a solemn movement up and down. This will be evident from a comparison of Lev_3:3 with Lev_4:8, Lev_4:31, Lev_4:35, and Lev_7:3. In the place of מִמֶּנּוּ יָרִים in Lev_4:8 we find מִזֶּבַח הִקְרִיב in Lev_4:10, חֵלֶב חוּסַר כַּאֲשֶׁר חוּ in Lev_4:31 and Lev_4:35; so that מִן הֵרִים evidently denotes simply the lifting off or removal of those parts which were to be burned upon the altar from the rest of the sacrifice (cf. Bähr, ii. 357, and my Archäologie i. p. 244-5). - In Lev_2:11-13 there follow two laws which were applicable to all the meat-offerings: viz., to offer nothing leavened (Lev_2:11), and to salt every meat-offering, and in fact every sacrifice, with salt (Lev_2:13). Every minchah was to be prepared without leaven: “for all leaven, and all honey, ye shall not burn a firing of it for Jehovah. As an offering of first-fruits ye may offer them (leaven and honey, i.e., pastry made with them) to Jehovah, but they shall not come upon the altar.” Leaven and honey are mentioned together as things which produce fermentation. Honey has also an acidifying or fermenting quality, and was even used for the preparation of vinegar (Plin. h. n. 11, 15; 21, 14). In rabbinical writings, therefore, הִדְבִישׁ signifies not only dulcedinem admittere, but corrumpsi, fermentari, fermentescere (vid., Buxtorf, lex. chald. talm. et rabb. p. 500). By “honey” we are to understand not grape-honey, the dibs of the Arabs, as Rashi and Bähr do, but the honey of bees; for, according to 2Ch_31:5, this alone was offered as an offering of first-fruits along with corn, new wine, and oil; and in fact, as a rule, this was the only honey used by the ancients in sacrifice (see Bochart, Hieroz. iii. pp. 393ff.). The loaves of first-fruits at the feast of Weeks were leavened; but they were assigned to the priests, and not burned upon the altar (Lev_23:17, Lev_23:20). So also were the cakes offered with the vow-offerings, which were applied to the sacrificial meal (Lev_7:13); but not the shew-bread, as Knobel maintains (see at Lev_24:5.). Whilst leaven and honey were forbidden to be used with any kind of minchah, because of their producing fermentation and corruption, salt on the other hand was not to be omitted from any sacrificial offering. “Thou shalt not let the salt of the covenant of thy God cease from thy meat-offering,” i.e., thou shalt never offer a meat-offering without salt. The meaning which the salt, with its power to strengthen food and preserve it from putrefaction and corruption, imparted to the sacrifice, was the unbending truthfulness of that self-surrender to the Lord embodied in the sacrifice, by which all impurity and hypocrisy were repelled. The salt of the sacrifice is called the salt of the covenant, because in common life salt was the symbol of covenant; treaties being concluded and rendered firm and inviolable, according to a well-known custom of the ancient Greeks (see Eustathius ad Iliad. i. 449) which is still retained among the Arabs, by the parties to an alliance eating bread and salt together, as a sign of the treaty which they had made. As a covenant of this kind was called a “covenant of salt,” equivalent to an indissoluble covenant (Num_18:19; 2Ch_13:5), so here the salt added to the sacrifice is designated as salt of the covenant of God, because of its imparting strength and purity to the sacrifice, by which Israel was strengthened and fortified in covenant fellowship with Jehovah. The following clause, “upon (with) every sacrificial gift of thine shalt thou offer salt,” is not to be restricted to the meat-offering, as Knobel supposes, nor to be understood as meaning that the salt was only to be added to the sacrifice externally, to be offered with or beside it; in which case the strewing of salt upon the different portions of the sacrifice (Eze_43:24; Mar_9:49) would have been a departure from the ancient law. For korban without any further definition denotes the sacrificial offerings generally, the bleeding quite as much as the bloodless, and the closer definition of עַל הִקְרִיב (offer upon) is contained in the first clause of the verse, “season with salt.” The words contain a supplementary rule which was applicable to every sacrifice (bleeding and bloodless), and was so understood from time immemorial by the Jews themselves (cf. Josephus, Ant. iii. 9, 1).
> (Note: The Greeks and Romans also regarded salt as indispensable to a sacrifice. Maxime in sacris intelligitur auctoritas salis, quando nulla conficiuntur sine mola salsa. Plin. h. n. 31, 7, (cf. 41).)



Just some reference materiel.


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## lynnie (Mar 30, 2012)

I used to know two ladies who walked around their church and sprinkled salt. One time they went inside and sprinkled it on the chairs. An end time prophet told them to do this as I recall.

I really like being Reformed


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