And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
Read Chapter 9
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
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 xxix. 23., Sophonias ii. 9., and Jeremias xvii. 6.
Salsa autem tellusquæ 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, (Bran tome) as was that of the admiral de Chatillon. (Calmet)
See on this custom Bo chart, animal. iii. 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)
