2. Tliat of Amaziah (2 Kings xiv, 7; 2 Chron. xxv, 11"), who is relatoii to have slain 10,000 Edomitcs in this valley, and tiien to have proceeded with 10,000 prison- ers to the stronghold of the nation at /lus-Sela, the Cliff, i. e. I'etra, and, after taking it, to have massacred them by hurling them down the precipice which gave its an- cient name to the city. See Edom.
Neither of these notices affords any clue to the situ- ation of tiie Valley of Salt, nor does the cursory men- tion of the name ("'Gemela" and "Mela") in the Oiio- vmsticon. By Josephus it is not named on either oc- casion. Seetzen {Rtisen, ii, 356) was probably the first to suggest that it was the broad, open plain which lies at the lower end of the Dead Sea, and intervenes be- tween the lake itself and the range of heights which crosses the valley at six or eight miles to the south. The same view is taken (more decisively) by Dr. Rob- inson (Bib. Res. ii, 109). The plain is in fact the ter- mination of the GhOr or valley through which the Jor- dan flows from the Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea. Its north-west corner is occupied by the Khashm Us- dum, a mountain of rock-salt, between which and the lake is an extensive salt marsh, while salt streams and brackish springs pervade, more or less, the entire west- ern half of the plain. Without presuming to contra- dict this suggestion, which yet can hardly be affirmed with safety in the very imperfect condition of our knowledge of the inaccessible regions south and south- east of the Dead Sea, it may be well to call attention to some considerations which seem to stand in the way of the implicit reception which most writers have given it since the publication of Dr. Kobinson's Researches. (So Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 346 ; also Keil on 2 Kings xiv, 7.) See Sodom.
(a.) The word Gey (X'^S), employed for the place in question, is not elsewhere applied to a broad valley or sunk plain of the nature of the lower Ghur. Such tracts are denoted in the Scripture by the word Emek or liika'ah, while Gey appears to be reserved for clefts or ravines of a deeper and narrower character. See Vai.lkv.
(&.) A priori, one would expect the tract in question to be called in .Scripture by the peculiar name uniform- ly applied to the more northern parts of the same ya\- ley, /id- A rahdh, in the same manner that the Arabs now call it el-Ghtir, " (ihor" being their equivalent for the Hebrew "Arabah." See Akabau.
(c.) The name " Salt," though at first sight conclu- sive, becomes less so on reflection. It does not follow. because the Hebrew word meluch signifies salt, that therefore the valley was salt. A case exactly parallel exists at el-!Milh, the representative of the ancient Mo- ladah, some sixteen miles south of Hebron. Like me- luch, milh signifies salt; but tliere is no reason to be- lieve that there is any salt present there, and Dr. Rob- inson (liih. Res. ii, 201, note) himself justly adduces it as "an instance of the usual tendency of popular pronun- ciation to reduce fureigu proper names to a significant form." .lust as el-^Iilh is the Arabic representative of the Hel)rcw Moladah, so possibly was Gey Melach the Hebrew reiiresentative of some archaic Edomitish name.
('/.) What little can be inferred from the narrative as to the situation of the (Jey Melach is in favor of its be- ing nearer to I'etra. Assuming Selah to be Petra (the chain of evidence for which is tolerably connected), it seems dink-ult to lielieve that a large body of jjrisoncrs should have been dragged for upwards of fifty miles through the heart of a hostile and most difficult coun- try merely for massacre.— Smith. See Pkika.
It would seem probal>le from the aiiove considera- tions that the sacred writers do not refer to the Arabah,
or great plain south of the Dead Sea, but rather to one or other of the passes leading from it, either up into Judah, on the one side, or Edom, on the other. Wady Zuweireh, a well-known pass at the northern end of the salt range of Usdum, might be the one meant, though the scope of the narrative would rather seem to locate it nearer Edom. — Kitto. Schwarz {Palest, p. 21, 22) fixes the valley at the same point, the south-west ex- tremity of the Dead Sea, and thinks that Zoar is called the " City of Salt" in Josh, xv, 62, because of the salt mountain near it. See Salt, City of.
Salter, Richard, D.D., a Congregational minister of New England, was born in Boston, Mass., in 1723. In due time he entered Harvard College, from which he graduated with honor, 1739. He studied and practiced medicine, but afterwards chose the ministry for his life work. He was settled in Mansfield, Conn., and ordain- ed, June 27, 1744. Not long after Salter's settlement, a serious difiiculty commenced in his church, in conse- quence of some of the members declaring in favor of the " Separatists" (q. v.), and the difficulty was protract- ed through several years. Peace was restored only after twenty-four of the members were expelled. He contin- ued activelj- engaged until 1787. when his strength began perceptibly to decline. In 1771 he was elected a fellow of Yale College, and was presented, 1782, by the same college with the degree of D.D. In 1781 he gave, by deed, a farm to Yale College " for encouraging and pro- moting the study of the Hebrew language, and other Oriental languages." He was twice married, but had no children. He preached the Connecticut Election Sermon (1768), which was published. He died in 1793. See Sprague, A nnals of the A mer. Puljrit, i, 421 sq.