NITRE

Not the substance used in making gunpowder, but natron, a mineral alkali composed of several salts of soda. It effervesces with vinegar, Pr 25:28, and is still used in washing, Jer 2:22. Combined with oil, it makes a hard soap. It is found deposited in, or floating upon, certain lakes west of the Delta of Egypt.

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Nitre. Nitre
(Prov. 25:20; R.V. marg., “soda”), properly “natron,” a substance so called because, rising from the bottom of the Lake Natron in Egypt, it becomes dry and hard in the sun, and is the soda which effervesces when vinegar is poured on it. It is a carbonate of soda, not saltpetre, which the word generally denotes (Jer. 2:22; R.V. “lye”).

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NITRE. → A chemical, (soda, R. V., margin) Pr 25:20 → (Lye, R. V.) Jer 2:22