Season … with salt: the origin and meaning of this custom of putting salt on offerings to God is not certain. But it was an ancient ritual practice in other groups as well as among the Jews. Salt was used to symbolize consecration and making something permanent. The basic idea probably came from the fact that salt was used to conserve food (in contrast with the fermentation brought about by honey and yeast). A “covenant of salt” meant a permanent agreement (see Num 18.19 and 2 Chr 13.5) which could not be broken or modified. Good News Translation has made explicit the fact that putting salt on offerings made to God “represents the covenant.” An even more explicit translation may say something like “because salt is a sign of the permanent covenant which God (or, I) made with you” or “since salt is a sign that the covenant which God (or, I) made with you will last forever.”

Covenant: the concept of covenant is central to the thought of the Old Testament. The term has to do with a compact or formal agreement between two parties. Each party commits himself to undertake certain things on behalf of the other. And this commitment was sealed by an oath. The word used here originally had to do with “binding” or an “obligation.”

You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering: this is a redundant and rather awkward way of saying the same thing as the first clause of this verse, but with the addition of the expression the salt of the covenant with your God. The two are reduced to one and translated simply at the beginning of the verse in Good News Translation as “Put salt on every grain offering.” But in some languages the repetition may be acceptable. In fact, it may serve to emphasize the importance of the statement. The expression the salt of the covenant with your God will need to be clarified so that the reader understands that salt represents the mutual commitment between God and his people Israel. Some languages may say “do not leave the salt out of your offerings to God because the salt should remind you of your agreement with God.”

With all your offerings: the final statement becomes a parenthetical one in Good News Translation. This sets it off as a more general requirement than has been given up to this point. Translators should make it clear that the requirement is not limited to grain offerings, but that all offerings are to be accompanied by salt. In some languages a good model may be “Indeed, you must put salt on all your offerings.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .