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