Concise Bible Dictionary:
This is spoken of as early as Genesis 11:3, in reference to building the tower of Babel: they used brick for stone and slime for morter. In other places it seems to have been employed more for plastering the walls, morter not being so much needed when the buildings were of stone (Lev. 14:42,45). The rigorous labor of the Israelites in Egypt was in preparing morter as well as making bricks (Ex. 1:14). Morter was made by treading the clay (Nah. 3:14). The work of the false prophets who prophesied peace to Jerusalem when God threatened to bring judgment is compared to building a wall and daubing it with untempered [morter]: God’s wind would blow down the wall (Ezek. 13:10-15). This teaches a needed lesson that all that is built for God must be built with God’s materials, otherwise it will not stand (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
Brick House in Joppa
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Leviticus 14:42. He shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
There were several kinds of mortar used by the Hebrews. Sometimes they used common mud and clay, mixed with straw chopped and beaten small. This may have been the kind especially referred to in the text. Aphar, “mortar,” is frequently rendered “dust,” and indeed is so translated in the verse preceding, where reference is made to the coating of old mortar which was scraped from the outside of the house. They also had several varieties of calcareous earth, any of which, mixed with ashes, made a good mortar. They likewise prepared an excellent cement of one part sand, two parts ashes, and three parts lime. These ingredients were well pounded, and were sometimes mixed with oil, while at other times the oil was put on as an outer coating.
Mortar was usually mixed by being trodden with the feet, but wheels were sometimes used.
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