And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
Every ... meat offering shalt thou season with salt. The same reasons which led to the prohibition of leaven recommended the use of salt-if the one soon putrifies, the other possesses a strongly perservative property; and hence, it became an emblem of incorruption and purity, as well as of a perpetual covenant-a perfect reconciliation and lasting friendship х melach (H4417) bªriyt (H1285) 'Eloheykaa (H430)].
The symbolical meaning of the rite is here distinctly brought out-namely, that the salt denoted the covenant of Yahweh with Israel. The Septuagint translates: ou diapausate halas diatheekees kuriou apo thusiasmatoon humoon, from your sacrifices. De Wette ('Exeget. Man.' 1: 2:, p. 189) considers the salt to have been used as a seasoning, and the ceremony to have originated in the anthropomorphic idea, that God required in the meat offerings presented on His altar to have His palate gratified by the seasoning of salt, as men at their tables. But this is a low conception of the rite, refuted by the reference to 'the covenant of the Lord called a covenant of salt' (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5) - i:e., inviolable, indissoluble, and "a covenant of holiness," or purity, as implied by sacrifice, constituting the basis of Hebrew worship. (See this idea largely illustrated in Bahr, 'Symbolik des Mos. Cultus,' pp. 324-327.)
No injunction in the whole law was more sacredly observed than this application of salt; for, besides other uses of it that will be noticed elsewhere, it had a typical meaning, referred to by our Lord concerning the effect of the Gospel on those who embrace it (Mark 9:49-50; Colossians 4:6). As salt, when plentifully applied, preserves meat from spoiling, so will the Gospel keep men from being corrupted by sin. And as salt was indispensable to render sacrifices acceptable to God, so the Gospel brought home to the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit is indispensably requisite to their offering up of themselves living sacrifices.