'Mortar' in the Bible

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

“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;

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.