Bible Dictionaries
Mortar

Holman Bible Dictionary

1. A vessel in which substances are crushed with a pestle. Mortars were frequently fashioned from basalt or limestone. They were used to grind grain for flour, herbs for medicine, olives for oil (Exodus 27:20 ). By extension mortar designates a hollow place (Joshua 15:19 ). Mortar is used as a proper name for a district of Jerusalem in Zephaniah 1:11 . 2 . A building material, usually clay (Exodus 1:14; Isaiah 41:25; Nahum 3:14 ), though sometimes bitumen (Genesis 11:3; KJV “slime”), used to secure joints in brick or stone. Modern translations sometimes replace the mortar of the KJV with another term, for example, plaster (Leviticus 14:42 ,Leviticus 14:42,14:45 ) or whitewash (Ezekiel 13:10-11 ,Ezekiel 13:10-11,13:14-15 ).