Ezekiel 16:4 seems to be describing practices performed on an infant or young child. But, what practice does לֹא הֻמְלַחַתְּ refer to? Do any rabbis explain the meaning?
Answer
Rashi implies that the practice was to salt the infant to strengthen its flesh. (See also Malbim.)
According to Abarbanel, the salt was added in the water to strengthen the infant's body, but also (it seems) for extra hydration.
Apparently, salting newborns was an ancient practice that was also recommended by Soranus of Ephesus. From here:
Soranus recommends that the midwife sprinkle the infant with a moderate amount of "fine and powdery salt, or natron or aphronitre." All these chemicals are mildly astringent and were recommended primarily for their ability to cut through the residue of amniotic fluid, vermix, and placenta on the newborn's skin and also to make the skin less prone to develop rashes; however, astringents would also tend to make the baby's skin dry out and flake or crack. Soranus suggests mixing the salt with honey, olive oil, or the juice of barley, fenugreek, or mallow so the granules are less likely to abrade the baby's delicate skin. The emulsion is to be washed away with warm water and the process repeated a second time.
However, according to Abraham Benisch (quoting Ben-Zeev), the root "מלח" in this case does not mean "salt", but rather "swaddle" or something similar, and this is a parallelism with the next phrase "וְהָחְתֵּל לֹא חֻתָּלְתְּ". Compare to Jer. 38:11: "בְלוֹיֵ מְלָחִים" - "worn rags". (He also compares to "מַלָח" - "sailor/seafarer", but I don't understand the comparison he makes.)
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