Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 9:45

"And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt." — Judges 9:45 (ASV)

Beat down the city. —Compare 2 Samuel 17:13; Micah 3:12.

Sowing it with salt—nothing could more clearly demonstrate his deadly condemnation of the populace to whom he owed his elevation and who had been the instrument of his crimes. By this symbolic act, he condemned the city to barrenness and desolation. (Deuteronomy 29:23; Job 39:6, and the marginal note.) “When Milan was taken, in A.D. 1162, it was sown with salt, and the house of Admiral Coligny, A.D. 1572, was sown with salt by the command of Charles IX., king of France” (Wordsworth).