They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly [in a kiln, to harden and strengthen them].” So they used brick for stone [as building material], and they used tar (bitumen, asphalt) for mortar.

They made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar, brick, and all kinds of field work. All their labor was harsh and severe.

“You shall not commit murder (unjustified, deliberate homicide).

He shall have the entire inside area of the house scraped, and the plaster that is scraped off shall be dumped in an unclean place outside the city.

Then they shall take new stones and replace the [contaminated] stones, and he shall take plaster and replaster the house.

He shall tear down the house—its stones and its timber and all the plaster of the house—and shall take everything outside the city to an unclean place.

‘You shall not murder.

They kill the widow and the alien
And murder the fatherless.

Let our cattle bear
Without mishap and without loss,
And let there be no outcry in our streets!

Even though you pound a [hardened, arrogant] fool [who rejects wisdom] in a mortar with a pestle like grain,
Yet his foolishness will not leave him.

A man who is burdened with the guilt of human blood (murder)
Will be a fugitive until death; let no one support him or give him refuge.

“I have stirred up and put into action one from the north [the king of Persia, Cyrus the Great], and he has come;
From the rising of the sun he will call on My Name [in prayer].
And he will trample on [the Babylonian] officials as on mortar,
Even as a potter treads clay.”

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear [oaths] falsely, offer sacrifices or burn incense to Baal, and follow after other gods that you have not known,

“Take some large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the brickwork [of the terrace] which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some of the men of Judah;

And as bands of robbers [lie in] wait for a man,
So a band of priests murder on the road toward Shechem [covering their crimes in that city of refuge];
Certainly they have committed crimes and outrages.

Draw water for a [long, continued] siege!
Strengthen your fortresses!
Go down to the clay pits, trample the mortar!
Prepare the brick kiln [to burn bricks for the rampart]!

“Wail [in anguish], you inhabitants of the Mortar (Valley of Siloam),
For all the merchants of Canaan will be silenced and destroyed;
All who weigh out silver will be cut off.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming).

For from within, [that is] out the heart of men, come base and malevolent thoughts and schemes, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries,

The man called Barabbas was imprisoned with the insurrectionists (revolutionaries) who had committed murder in the civil rebellion.

(He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection that happened in the city, and for murder.)

And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he handed over Jesus to their will.

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby approving and consenting [to his death], and guarding the coats of those who were killing him.’

until they were filled (permeated, saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice and mean-spiritedness. They are gossips [spreading rumors],

understanding the fact that law is not enacted for the righteous person [the one in right standing with God], but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinful, for the irreverent and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,

You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your lust goes unfulfilled; so you murder. You are envious and cannot obtain [the object of your envy]; so you fight and battle. You do not have because you do not ask [it of God].