Bricks

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(fragment). Bricks were made of clay, mixed with straw, usually larger than our bricks, and burned in a kiln or dried in the sun (Gen. 11:3; Ex. 1:14; 5:7, 2 Sam. 12:31; Jer. 43:9).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

As early as Genesis 11:3 we read of bricks being made and burnt; and in Egypt the bricks were made with an admixture of straw. When the Israelites had to find their own straw or stubble and yet make as many bricks per day, it is probable that but little straw was used. Some ancient bricks have been found which had apparently no straw in them. Many of the bricks were stamped with the name of the reigning monarch.
On the monuments in a tomb the process of brick-making in Egypt is fully delineated: a task-master stands over the men with a stick in his hand, as doubtless was the case in the time of Moses (Ex. 5:7-19). Bricks brought from Egypt vary in size, from 20 in. to 14 1/4 in. long, 8 3/4 in. to 6 ½ in. wide, and 7 in. to 4 ½ in. thick. There is a brick from Babylon in the British Museum, which bears the inscription in cuneiform characters “I am Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the restorer of the temples Sag-ili and Zida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.” It measures 13 in. by 13 in., and 4 in. thick. Other bricks from Chaldea are more ancient still.

“109. Egyptian Bricks” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Exodus 5:7. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
The ancient Egyptian bricks were made of clay moistened with water and then put into molds. After they were sufficiently dry to be removed from the molds, they were laid in rows on a flat spot exposed to the sun, which gradually hardened them. Some were made with straw and some without. Many had chopped barley and wheat straw; others bean haulm and stubble. The use of this crude brick was general in Egypt for dwellings, tombs, and ordinary buildings, walls of towers, fortresses, and sacred inclosures of temples. Even temples of a small size were sometimes built of unburnt brick, and several pyramids of this material are still to be seen in Egypt. The use of stone was confined mainly to temples, quays, and reservoirs.
Egyptian bricks were frequently stamped with the name of the king during whose reign they were made. They differ in size from the Babylonian bricks. They are from fourteen and a half to twenty inches long, from six and a half to eight and three quarter inches wide, and from four and a half to seven inches thick. Several bricks bearing the name of Thothmes III., and plainly showing the chopped straw used in their manufacture, are in the Abbott Collection, which also contains some of the ancient implements which were used in brick-making.

“616. Tempering Clay” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

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).

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