Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 13:5
Do you not know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abijah, standing on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim, addresses Jeroboam and the assembled northern army, asserting David's divine right to the throne before battle.
The words — מֶלַח (melakh, H4491), "salt," appears in the fixed phrase בְּרִית־מֶלַח, "covenant of salt," a term for a binding, permanent agreement that cannot be revoked.
The thread — The same "covenant of salt" language appears in Numbers 18:19 and Leviticus 2:13, where it marks God's unbreakable commitment to the Levites and to the grain offering; 2 Samuel 7:12–16 supplies the original Davidic promise that this kingship would endure through his descendant.
Why it lands — The verse forces a choice: the reader must treat the Davidic line as a matter of divine obligation, not political convenience, and recognize that Jeroboam's claim rests on nothing but force.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?
Cross-references
- Numbers 18:19 All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.”
- Leviticus 2:13 And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.
- 2 Samuel 7:12 And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
- Mark 9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
- 1 Kings 8:20 Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
- Psalms 89:19 You once spoke in a vision; to Your godly ones You said, “I have bestowed help on a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
- Luke 1:31 Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
- 1 Chronicles 17:11 And when your days are fulfilled and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
- 1 Chronicles 17:14 But I will set him over My house and My kingdom forever, and his throne will be established forever.”
- 1 Chronicles 28:4 Yet the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me out of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah He chose my father’s household, and from my father’s sons He was pleased to make me king over all Israel.