SALT, Covenant of. See Covenant; Salt.
SALT SEA, usually known as " the Dead Sea." This is the largest lake in Palestine, and in many respects the most remarkable in the world. (The following ac- coinit of it is chiefly taken from the dictionaries of Kitto and Smith.) See Palestine.
I. Names. — This body of water has received a variety of designations from writers both ancient and modern ; and, as they are characteristic, they demand a brief ex- amination here.
1. " Tlie Salt Sea" is the most common Scripture ap- pellation (ribatl C^, Yam ham-Milach ; Sept. »/ Bd- \a(Tna tCov ciXmv, or aXoi; ; also >) BctXaaffa i) aXvKt]^ ; Vulg. Mare ASalis). It is evidently a deseri|)tive name, probably intended to indicate both the saltness of its water and the character of the plain and hills along its southern margin (Reland, Palrest. p. 240). It occurs in the earliest books of the Bible, but is not found later than the time of Joshua (Gen. xiv; 3; Numb, xxxiv, 3; Deut. iii, 17; Josh, iii, 16; xv, 2, 5; xviii, 19). In th(' Talmiidical books it is likewise called "the Sea of Salt" (Nnb-2-I XT:i). See quotations from the Tal- mud and the Midrash Tehillim bv I.'eland (J'alwst. p. 237).
2. " Tfie Sea of the Plain," or, more properly, of the Arabuh (n^lr'tl D^, Yam ha-Arabah; Sept. [ry] Sid-
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Xaffaa [rJjc] "Apa/Sa ; Vulg. Mta-e solititdinis) , is also a descriptive title, showing its geographical position in the centre of the great valley of the Arabah. It is tirst employed in combination with tlie preceding, as if Mo- ses had heard it on his approach to Palestine (Deut. iii, 17); and possibly it tnay have afterwards supplanted the older name (iv, 49 ; 2 Kings xiv, 25), with which it is sometimes associated (Josh, iii, IG ; xii, 3 ; Deut. iii, 17). See Arabah.
o. " The East Sea" is the only other name employed in Scripture (■^3"'-1)5^1 C^r?,- ha-Yum hak-Kadmoni ; Sept. i) ^dXacrcra i) irpoQ avaroXciQ ; Vulg. Mare Uri- entale). It is used by Ezekiel (xlvii, 18), Joel (ii, 20), and Zechariah (xiv, 8, where the A. V. has ^^ the furmer sea," although the Hebrew is the same), to distinguish it from the Mediterranean, wliich was called " the west- ern" ("Tinxn, literally "latter," though when opposed to ")1''2Tp it means " western").
In one passage (Ezek. xlvii, 8) it is styled, without previous reference, "//*e Sea" ("'H, ha-Ydm), and dis- tinguished from " the great sea" — the Mediterranean — (ver. 10).
4. The Sea of Sodom (DTIO Vn N^i') is found in the Talmud (Eeland, p. 237, 243), no doubt because common tradition represented the city of Sodom as having been engulfed by it. Its connection with Sodom is tirst suggested in the Bible in the book of 2 Esdras (v, 7) by the name "Sodomitish sea" {mare Sodomiticum).
5. Josephus, and before him Diodorus Siculus (ii, 48; xix, 98), names it the Asphaltic Lake — // 'A(T0a/\r(ri(,' \ifivt] (^Ant. i, 9; iv, 5, I; ix, 10, 1; War, i, 33, 5; iii, 10, 7 ; iv, 8, 2, 4), and once X. ij a<r<l>(i\T0(pop0Q (.4 nt. xvii, 6, 5). Also (ibid, v, 1, 22) ?) So^o/iiVif Xifiv)]. This name was adopted by Galen and other ancient writers, apparently because bitumen or asphaltum was often found floating on its surface or lying along its shores (Reland, p. 241).
6. The name Dead Sea appears to have been first used in Greek (^dXaffaa viKpa) by Pausanias (v, 7) and Galen (iv, 9), and in Latin (inare mortuum) by Justin (xxxvi, 3, G), or, rather, by the older historian, Trogus Pompeiius (B.C. cir. 10), whose work he epito- mized. It is employed also by Eusebius {Onomast. s. v, Eudofia). The expressions of Pausanias and Galen im- ply that the name was in use in the country ; and this is corroborated by the expression of Jerome (Comm. on Dan. xi, 45), "Mare . . . quod nunc appellatur mortu- um." The origin of this name is given bv Jerome (ad Ezek. xlvii), "In quo nihil poterat esse vitale;" and in this respect modern research has to a large extent con- Hrmed ancient tradition, proving that the name is ap- propriate. The Jewish writers appear never to have used it, but it has become established in modern litera- ture from the belief in the very exaggerated stories of its deadly character and gloomy aspect, which them- selves probablv arose out of the name, and were due to the preconceived notions of the travellers who visited its sliores, or to the implicit faith with which they re- ceived the statements of their guides. Thus Maunde- ville (ch. ix) says it is called the Dead Sea because it moveth not, but is ever still — the fact being that it is frequently agitated, and that when in motion its waves have great force. Hence also the fable that no birds could rty across it and live, a notion which the expe- rience of almost every modern traveller to Palestine would contradict.
7. The Arabic name is Balir Lnt, "the Sea of Lot." The name of Lot is also specially connected with a small piece of land, sometimes island, sometimes penin- sida, at the north end of the lake. Another frequent designation among the modern inhabitants is El-Bahei- ret el-Mi/etah, " Dead Sea," suggested by its character.