616. Tempering Clay

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 6
Listen from:
Nahum 3:14. Go into clay, and tread the mortar.
This is an allusion to the ancient method of tempering the clay for making bricks. It was done by the feet of the laborer, and was very severe and fatiguing labor. Tit, “clay,” may also be rendered “mire”; and chomer, “mortar,” is not to be understood here in the sense of a cement for bricks, but rather of clay. Henderson accordingly translates the passage, “Enter the mire, and tread the clay.” Keil has, “Tread in the mire, and stamp the clay.” Potter’s clay was tempered in a similar way. “He shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay” (Isa. 41:25).