Word study
Salt
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: salt, salted. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “salt” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מֶלַח melachsalttranslated this way 20 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H4417Noun · Translated: salt 19, salt pits 1Full study and all 18 verses →
Genesis 14:3 The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
Leviticus 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.
- יָם yâmseatranslated this way 6 times of its 378 uses · Strong’s H3220Noun · Translated: sea 254, west 51, seas 20, west side 7Full study and all 327 verses →
Deuteronomy 3:17 The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.
Joshua 3:16 the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
- מְלֵחָה melêchâhsaltness, barrennesstranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4420Noun · Translated: salt flats 1, fields of salt 1, salt 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Job 39:6 I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.
Psalm 107:34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
- מָלַח mâlachtear awaytranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H4414Verb · Translated: seasoned with salt 1, season 1, vanish 1, rubbed with salt 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Exodus 30:35 and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
Ezekiel 16:4 On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
- גַּיְא gayvalleytranslated this way 2 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H1516Noun · Translated: Valley 40, valleys 6, Valley of Ben-hinnom 5, Valley of Hinnom 2Full study and all 53 verses →
2 Samuel 8:13 And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
2 Chronicles 25:11 Amaziah, however, summoned his strength and led his troops to the Valley of Salt, where he struck down 10,000 men of Seir,
- מְלַח melachsalttranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4416Noun · Translated: salt 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail.
Ezra 7:22 up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἅλας hálassalttranslated this way 8 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G217Noun · Translated: salt 8Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Mark 9:50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about salt: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.