| Judges 9:45
| And Abimelech assaulted the city all that day: and took it, and killed the inhabitants thereof, and demolished it, so that he sowed salt in it.
| Sowed salt. To make the ground barren, and fit for nothing; (Challoner) and to testify his eternal hatred towards the place, as salt is the symbol of duration. See Deuteronomy 29:23., Sophonias 2:9., and Jeremias 17:6. --- Salsa autem tellus et quae perhibetur amara---Frugibus infelix. (Virgil, Georg. ii.) Notwithstanding the fury of Abimelech, Sichem was afterwards rebuilt, and became as fertile as before. The city of Milan was destroyed and sowed with salt in 1162. (Sigon.) --- The houses of traitors were formerly treated in this manner in France, (Brantome) as was that of the admiral de Chatillon. (Calmet) --- See on this custom Bochart, animal. 3:16. --- Some think it denoted that the ground might henceforth be cultivated, and grow corn where houses had stood. Salt is the source of fertility, if there be not too much of it. (Haydock)
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