Not to make the place barren, as salt will do, for then he would have sowed the fields, not the city; but in token of his detestation and desire of their utter and irrecoverable destruction; for salt is the symbol or sign of perpetuity: compare Numbers 18:19 Deuteronomy 29:23 2 Chronicles 13:5 Zephaniah 2:9.
Related Commentaries of Judges 9:45
Judges 9:45
45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.