Can Salt Stop Being “Salty”?

■ It would seem strange for salt to lose its saltiness, but it can happen. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ said: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its strength, how will its saltness be restored? It is no longer usable for anything but to be thrown outside to be trampled on by men.”​—Matt. 5:13.

While it is true that the salt used in most countries today is a chemical compound, so that if you removed the saltness, there would be nothing remaining, note what Bible commentator Albert Barnes says on this matter: “In eastern countries, however, the salt used was impure, mingled with vegetable and earthy substances; so that it might lose the whole of its saltness, and a considerable quantity of earthy matter remain. This was good for nothing, except that it was used, as it is said, to place in paths, or walks, as we use gravel. . . . It is found in the earth in veins or layers, and when exposed to the sun and rain, loses its saltness entirely.”