Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(pine-resin). The pitch of scripture was asphalt or bitumen, found in Dead Sea regions. Used for mortar, cement, caulk, and so forth (Gen. 6:14; 11:3; Ex. 2:3; Isa. 34:9).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
Naturally-formed Bitumen collected at the Dead Sea shore.
A kind of bitumen. Noah covered the ark with pitch inside and outside (Gen. 6:14). The ark in which the infant Moses was put, was likewise thus rendered waterproof (Ex. 2:3). Among God’s judgments on the earth the streams are turned into pitch, and the land into burning pitch (Isa. 34:9). Different words are employed in the Hebrew of Genesis 6:14 from the other passages. Noah was to pitch (kaphar, “to cover,” often translated “atonement”) the ark with pitch (kopher, translated “ransom”) as if to teach that Noah and those with him could be saved only by being covered with a ransom, and which would introduce them to a new earth.
Area of bituminous wells S. of Mosul. Series of bitumen storage pools.