Bricks

Brickmaking formed the chief labor imposed on the Israelites during their Egyptian bondage (Ex. 1:13–14; 5:7–19). Egyptian bricks were typically made of Nile mud mixed with straw or reed fiber for binding, dried in the sun rather than fired. The famous incident in Exodus 5, where Pharaoh removed the straw supply but maintained the brick quota, has been confirmed by Egyptian sources: both straw-filled and strawless bricks are found at various sites, the latter generally associated with periods of labor crisis.

Babylon was similarly famous for its fired brick construction (Gen. 11:3), where the Mesopotamian alluvial plain provided abundant clay but no stone. Jeremiah 43:9 records God's instruction to Jeremiah to hide large stones in mortar at the entrance of Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, as a sign that Nebuchadnezzar would set his throne over them. Nahum 3:14 sarcastically encourages Nineveh to “go into the clay and tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold” as preparation for the siege that will destroy it—using the language of construction to anticipate inevitable destruction.