What does מֶלַח mean in the Bible?
Salt is the ordinary substance named in food, offerings, and several striking biblical images. Job asks whether tasteless food is eaten without salt, giving the word its familiar culinary setting.
Hebrew · H4417
מֶלַח
Salt is the ordinary substance named in food, offerings, and several striking biblical images. Job asks whether tasteless food is eaten without salt, giving the word its familiar culinary setting.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
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מֶלַחH4417
What does מֶלַח mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for מֶלַח (H4417) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H4417?
The BSB source-word alignment has 28 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (8), of salt (6), salt (3), the Salt (3), and salt (1).
Where does מֶלַח appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 14:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Joshua (5), 2 Kings (3), Leviticus (3), Numbers (3).
What This Word Actually Means
Salt is the ordinary substance named in food, offerings, and several striking biblical images. Job asks whether tasteless food is eaten without salt, giving the word its familiar culinary setting. Leviticus commands salt in Israel's offerings and explicitly calls it the salt of God's covenant. Numbers uses a covenant of salt when describing the holy offerings given to Aaron and his offspring.
These covenant passages give salt a particular relation to God's binding provision, but the noun itself does not mean salvation or covenant in every verse. Elsewhere salt can belong to devastation and judgment. Responsible reading preserves these differences. Ask who speaks, what God promises or commands, and what kind of scene contains the salt.
How the Bible Uses It
The selected witnesses move from ordinary seasoning to commanded offerings and a permanent provision for Aaron's household, while other contexts use salt within judgment imagery.
- Job.6.6
Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?
Job's question about unsalted food contributes to his complaint of unbearable suffering; it is a comparison, not an instruction for acceptable worship.
- Lev.2.13
And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.
God explicitly requires salt with the offerings and calls it covenant salt, so the covenant association comes from the command's wording.
- Num.18.19
All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the Lord for you and your offspring.”
The covenant of salt describes the permanent grant of holy offerings to Aaron and his children, within the passage's account of priestly provision.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It. . .8×Deuteronomy 3:17, Joshua 3:16, Joshua 12:3, Joshua 15:2
of salt6×Genesis 19:26, Numbers 18:19, 2 Kings 14:7, 1 Chronicles 18:12
salt3×Leviticus 2:13, Job 6:6, Ezekiel 43:24
the Salt3×Genesis 14:3, Leviticus 2:13, 2 Kings 2:21
and salt1×Deuteronomy 29:23
at the Salt1×Numbers 34:12
for salt1×Ezekiel 47:11
it with salt1×Judges 9:45
of the Salt1×Numbers 34:3
salt pits1×Zephaniah 2:9
some salt1×2 Kings 2:20
with salt1×Leviticus 2:13
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 14:3הַמֶּֽלַח׃tothe SaltArticle | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 19:26מֶֽלַח׃toof saltNoun - masculine singularLeviticus 2:13בַּמֶּ֣לַחtowith saltPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularLeviticus 2:13מֶ֚לַחtothe saltNoun - masculine singular constructLeviticus 2:13מֶֽלַח׃סtosaltNoun - masculine singularNumbers 18:19מֶ֨לַחtoof saltNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 34:3הַמֶּ֖לַחtoof the SaltArticle | Noun - masculine singularNumbers 34:12הַמֶּ֑לַחtoat the SaltArticle | Noun - masculine singularDeuteronomy 3:17הַמֶּ֔לַחto. . .Article | Noun - masculine singularDeuteronomy 29:23וָמֶלַח֮toand saltConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 14:3
Aligned rows28
Books represented14
Genesis2Leviticus3Numbers3Deuteronomy2Joshua5Judges12 Samuel12 Kings31 Chronicles12 Chronicles2Job1Psalms1Ezekiel2Zephaniah1
Source forms
מֶ֑לַח5xme·laḥ2 Samuel 8:13, 2 Kings 2:20, 2 Kings 2:21, Job 6:6
הַמֶּ֑לַח3xham·me·laḥNumbers 34:12, Joshua 15:2, 2 Chronicles 25:11
הַמֶּ֔לַח3xham·me·laḥDeuteronomy 3:17, Joshua 15:5, 1 Chronicles 18:12
הַמֶּ֖לַח2xham·me·laḥNumbers 34:3, Joshua 3:16
הַמֶּ֙לַח֙2xham·me·laḥJoshua 12:3, Joshua 18:19
מֶֽלַח׃ס2xme·laḥLeviticus 2:13, 2 Chronicles 13:5
בַּמֶּ֣לַח1xbam·me·laḥLeviticus 2:13
הַמֶּלַח1xham·mɛ·laḥ2 Kings 14:7
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular13xGenesis 19:26, Leviticus 2:13, Judges 9:45, 2 Samuel 8:13
Article | Noun - masculine singular9xGenesis 14:3, Numbers 34:3, Numbers 34:12, Deuteronomy 3:17
Noun - masculine singular construct2xLeviticus 2:13, Numbers 18:19
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular1xDeuteronomy 29:23
Noun - proper - feminine singular1x2 Kings 14:7
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular1xLeviticus 2:13
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular1xEzekiel 47:11
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Placing salt in a home supplies no biblical guarantee of spiritual protection.
- Do not condemn distressed people for speaking in food comparisons as Job does.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim salt grants forgiveness or spiritual security; these texts grant no saving power to the substance.
- Do not require Christians to repeat Israel's salted offerings; the selected passages describe their own covenant setting.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. properly, powder , i.e. (specifically) salt (as easily pulverized and dissolved)
Source Gloss
properly, powder , i.e. (specifically) salt (as easily pulverized and dissolved)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
properly, powder, i.e. (specifically) salt (as easily pulverized and dissolved) BDB: salt Usage: salt(-pit).
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Word Origins
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Salt shows why a word study must permit different passages to do different work. Job's question draws on a common experience of food while he tries to express his distress. Leviticus gives an instruction about offerings, and its covenant wording makes that ritual use significant. Numbers locates a covenant of salt within the Lord's provision for Aaron's household.
Neither command becomes clearer by importing a detailed account of an ancient salt ceremony that these texts do not describe. The teaching opportunity is to hear the Lord's stated provision accurately and to resist relocating confidence into the ingredient. Salt in a judged landscape further warns against making the substance an invariably positive spiritual symbol.
God's word, rather than an object, governs the reader's trust.
Anchor passage
Lev.2.13
Doctrinal connections
- Leviticus 2:13 makes covenant salt part of the Lord's commanded offering practice.
- Numbers 18:19-20 joins the permanent offering provision to the Lord as Aaron's portion.
- Job 6:6-8 uses food imagery within lament, requiring attention to the sufferer's speech.
- Second Chronicles 13:5 places covenant-of-salt language within Abijah's appeal concerning David's kingship.
- Genesis 19:26 names salt in the account of Lot's wife's judgment rather than as a blessing token.
- Deuteronomy 29:23-25 places salt in a devastated land and explicitly explains covenant abandonment.
The lexical comparison identifies salt as a concrete substance. Covenant significance is expressed by the phrase and context; it should not be inserted into unrelated culinary or geographical occurrences.
From Old to New Testament
New Testament salt sayings invite their own contextual study, but a shared substance does not make every saying a quotation of Leviticus. Christian forgiveness rests on Christ, not on reproducing an offering ingredient or manipulating salt.