me.lach is salt as a tangible substance, used with food, offerings, water, and scenes of devastation or transformation.

The occurrences show salt as a tangible substance: it is used with food and offerings, placed in water, and appears in scenes involving a pillar, a sown city, marshland, and desolation. The same noun also occurs in place and boundary expressions, without requiring a different lexical sense.

1. Salt as a material substance · dominant

   The common masculine singular forms refer to salt in concrete settings. In Job 6:6 the APB renders food being eaten “without salt”; in Leviticus 2:13 it renders salt being added to every grain offering; and in 2 Kings 2:20 the salt is placed in a new jar. In 2 Kings 2:21 it is thrown into the waters, while Genesis 19:26, Judges 9:45, Ezekiel 47:11, and Zephaniah 2:9 place it in descriptions of a pillar, a city sown with salt, marshes given to salt, and a pit of salt.

   Job 6:6Leviticus 2:132 Kings 2:202 Kings 2:21Judges 9:45Zephaniah 2:9

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the noun as “salt,” including food in Job 6:6, offerings in Leviticus 2:13, and water in 2 Kings 2:20. It also uses “Salt Sea” and “Valley of Salt” in place expressions.