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Judges 9:45

And Abimelech assaulted the city all that day: and took it, and killed the inhabitants thereof, and demolished it, so that he sowed salt in it.

Challoner: Sowed saltTo make the ground barren, and fit for nothing.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Porro Abimelech omni die illo oppugnabat urbem : quam cepit, interfectis habitatoribus ejus, ipsaque destructa, ita ut sal in ea dispergeret.
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ Ἀβειμέλεχ παρετάσσετο ἐν τῇ πόλει ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην, καὶ κατελάβετο τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν λαὸν τὸν ἐν αὐτῇ ἀπέκτεινεν, καὶ καθεῖλεν τὴν πόλιν καὶ ἔσπειρεν εἰς ἅλας.
Hebrew (WLC): וַאֲבִימֶ֜לֶךְ נִלְחָ֣ם בָּעִ֗יר כֹּ֚ל הַיּ֣וֹם הַה֔וּא וַיִּלְכֹּד֙ אֶת הָעִ֔יר וְאֶת הָעָ֥ם אֲשֶׁר בָּ֖הּ הָרָ֑ג וַיִּתֹּץ֙ אֶת הָעִ֔יר וַיִּזְרָעֶ֖הָ מֶֽלַח

Haydock's commentary

Sowed salt. To make the ground barren, and fit for nothing; (Challoner) and to testify his eternal hatred towards the place, as salt is the symbol of duration. See Deuteronomy xxix. 23., Sophonias ii. 9., and Jeremias xvii. 6.

Salsa autem tellus & quæ perhibetur amara

Frugibus infelix. (Virgil, Georg. ii.) Notwithstanding the fury of Abimelech, Sichem was afterwards rebuilt, and became as fertile as before. The city of Milan was destroyed and sowed with salt in 1162. (Sigon.)

The houses of traitors were formerly treated in this manner in France, (Brantome) as was that of the admiral de Chatillon. (Calmet)

See on this custom Bochart, animal. iii. 16.

Some think it denoted that the ground might henceforth be cultivated, and grow corn where houses had stood. Salt is the source of fertility, if there be not too much of it. (Haydock)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.