Chapter XIV: A Savor of Life or of Death

That which is a means of life in one instance may be a means of death in another. A breath that might kindle a tiny spark into a living blaze might also extinguish a quivering flame. The breeze that gives life to fire in one case gives death to fire in the other. And fire itself proves death to that which is perishable, while it gives added value to that which is purified in the furnace flames. Salt, like fire, is a symbol both of life and of death. In different connections it is a preserver and a destroyer. "To the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life."[238]

[238] 2 Cor. 2 : 16.

Salt is spoken of in the Bible as destructive of vegetable life, and a barrier against new animal life. A piece of ground sown or strewed with salt is deemed dead land: "It is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein."[239] When Abimelech captured Shechem, "he beat down the city and sowed it with salt."[240] The Psalmist, speaking of the power and ways of God, declares:

"He turneth rivers into a wilderness,
And watersprings into a thirsty ground;
A fruitful land into a salt desert,
For the wickedness of them that dwell therein."[241]

[239] Deut. 29 : 23.

[240] Judg. 9 : 45.

[241] Psa. 107 : 33, 34.

The prophet Jeremiah says of one who departs from God's service that he "shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited."[242] Ezekiel, foretelling a curse on the land of the Jews, says: "The marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt."[243] And Zephaniah declares that Moab shall become "a possession of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation."[244] Because there can be no fertility for new vegetable life, there is no room or hope for new animal life for land thus sown with salt and thus permanently sterile.

[242] Jer. 17 : 6.

[243] Ezek. 47 : 11.

[244] Zeph. 2 : 9.

The one great body of water that is called the Dead Sea is the saltest sea in the world. Five times the proportion of salt in the ocean is found in this inland sea of salt. "No fish can exist in the waters, nor is it proved that any low forms of life have been discovered there."[245] An ancient legend declared that birds could not even fly over its waters, because of the curse from heaven on its briny depths.[246] Yet this doomed and dead sea of salt is a source of life to man in its exhaustless supply of salt for his use. Preeminently is this salt of the Dead Sea a savor of life and of death.

[245] George Adam Smith's _Historical Geography of the Holy Land_, p.
502.

[246] Tacitus, _Hist._, v. 6, cited as above.

The salt of the ocean is the world's treasure. Without it the greater portion of the earth's inhabitants would perish for lack of what vivifies and preserves animal life. Yet because of the salt in the ocean the very water, which man and beast must have or perish of thirst, is useless to both man and beast. The cry in the "Ancient Mariner" is the cry of the human, always, on the ocean's surface:

"Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink:
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."

Water, which is the gift of God to the thirsty soul, mocks the thirsty soul when it brings with it salt, which is the representative of life. Salt in water is a savor of death unto death, while salt and water are also a savor of life unto life.

While salt as the equivalent of life is a symbol of permanency, it becomes, as the equivalent of death, a symbol of doom and destruction. Thus the prophet Isaiah, speaking of his salvation as sure and permanent, says: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away [literally, shall be salted] like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner [or, like gnats]: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished."[247]

[247] Isa. 51 : 6.

Life is in itself the destroyer of death, as light is the destroyer of darkness. Hence that which makes anew does away with that which was of old. When, therefore, salt or fire is spoken of as the destroyer of that which is not worthy of preservation, it is not to be wondered at that this power is possessed by an element that purifies and revivifies through the process of destruction. The ground of a destroyed and condemned city is guarded against a continuance of its old life of evil by being sown with salt, which is a savor from life unto life and from death unto death. The old heavens and the old earth which vanish away as by fire and salt,[248] are replaced by a new heaven and a new earth[249] which shall be enduring as gold tried in the fire, and as a covenant of salt forever.

[248] Isa. 34 : 4; 2 Peter 3 : 10-12.

[249] Isa. 51 : 16; 65 : 17; 66 : 22; 2 Peter 3 : 13.

There is a sense in which that which is devoted to God is thereby forbidden to the use of man. Thus land sown with salt may be counted as devoted and as destroyed, _devoted_ to God and _destroyed_ for man.[250] The Hebrew word _korban_ was applied to what had thus been dedicated and doomed.[251]

[250] See Num. 21 : 2, 3.

[251] Mark 7 : 11. See the Rev. Dr. Jastrow, in _The Sunday School
Times_ for April 28, 1894; also W. Robertson Smith's _Religion of the
Semites_, p. 435; also Nowack, _Lehrbuch der Hebræischen Archæologie_,
II., 267.

Blood also is used in the twofold sense of life and of death, in different connections. Men say, "We are bound together by blood," and "We are of one blood," and "Blood is thicker than water." They say, also, "There is blood between us," and "Spilled blood cannot be gathered up," and "Blood is a barrier." Salt, that stands for blood, may similarly stand for life or for death, for peace or for discord. It is an old superstition that to put salt on another's plate is an evil omen. Hence the couplet:

"Help me to salt,
Help me to sorrow!"

Yet even this portent of ill luck may be canceled by a repetition of the act, helping to a second portion of salt.[252] The taking of blood that becomes a barrier may be followed by the taking of blood as a bond of union. Shedding of blood is atoned for by sharing of blood.

[252] Henderson's _Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties_, p. 120.
Thistleton Dyer's _Domestic Folk-Lore_, p. 104 f.

Even the spilling of salt, which is so dreaded in primitive thought, may, it is said, be rendered harmless if the person who was guilty of the mishap will carefully gather up the spilled salt with the blade of a knife, and throw it over his left shoulder, with an appropriate invocation.[253]

[253] Henderson, p. 120; Dyer, p. 104 f.; Napier, p. 139 f.

It is deemed dangerous to give away salt to a stranger; for because salt is as blood and as life, one must be careful lest he put his blood and his life in the power of an enemy.[254] Salt is essential to the preservation of human life; at the same time, salt is the destruction of human life if it be in too great quantity or proportion. Thus the seeming contradiction is only in seeming.

[254] Henderson, p. 217.