SALT, VALLEY OF (I-6p N4A). This name is employed five times in the Bible, but in these the sacred writers mention only two events which oc curred in the place. In 2 Sam. viii. 13, and Chron. xviii. 12, an account is given of the slaughter of eighteen thousand Edomites by the army of king David in the valley of Salt.' The former passage reads trit,t, Aram, or Syrians,' in the Masoretic text ; but, from the testimony of some MSS. (De Rossi, Var. Led. p. 174), ancient versions, and the parallel passage in Chron. xviii. I2, it is evi dent the word ought to be LIU, Ea'ont. There is nothing to indicate the exact position of the valley. It may be inferred, however, from the whole scope of the passage, that it was on or near the border of Edom which appears to have been defined by the Aral;ah on the west, and Wady el-Ahsy on the north [IDum/EA].
The second incident which occurred in the valley of Salt' was also a conflict with the Edom ites. Amaziah, king of Judah, slew of Edom, in the vallg of Salt, ten thousand, and took Selah by war' (2 Kings xiv. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 1). The Edomites probably opposed him on the frontier, and were defeated ; the remnant then retired to their strongholds, which were captured and de stroyed.
The salt-hills and numerous salt-springs at the south-western extremity of the Dead Sea, within a few miles of the frontier of Edom, and in the route along which armies would naturally march between Edom and Judah, suggest the idea that 'the valley of Salt' must have been somewhere in that region. It would seem probable, from the word which in the A. V. is translated valley,' and which usually signifies a glen' or 'ravine' (t.:M), 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. Robinson and others (B. R. ii. to9 ; Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 346) suppose the 'valley of Salt' to be the Arabah itself (see also Keil on 2 Kings xiv 7).— J. L. P.