Mortar

The word mortar in the English Bible translates two distinct Hebrew concepts. The first (homer or chomer) refers to cement made of lime and sand or clay used in building construction: the builders of Babel used bitumen as mortar (Gen. 11:3), and the enslaved Israelites in Egypt made mortar as part of their brick-making labor (Ex. 1:14). Nahum's taunt against Nineveh includes the command to "tread the mortar" in a last-ditch effort to repair the city's defenses (Nah. 3:14). The second sense of mortar refers to a grinding vessel: a deep bowl in which grain, spices, or other substances are pounded with a pestle. The Israelites in the wilderness ground manna in mortars (Num. 11:8), and Proverbs 27:22 observes that a fool's folly will not depart even if he is ground in a mortar. Both uses reflect essential technologies of ancient Near Eastern daily life.