the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Bricks
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Bricks compacted with straw and dried in the sun, are those which are chiefly mentioned in the Scriptures. Of such bricks the tower of Babel was doubtless composed [BABEL, TOWER OF, BABYLON], and the making of such formed the chief labor of the Israelites when bondsmen in Egypt (Exodus 1:13-14).
The use of crude brick, baked in the sun, was universal in Upper and Lower Egypt, both for public and private buildings; and the brickfield gave abundant occupation to numerous laborers throughout the country. We find that, independent of native laborers, a great many foreigners were constantly engaged in the brick-fields at Thebes and other parts of Egypt. The Jews, of course, were not excluded from this drudgery; and, like the captives detained in the Thebaid, they were condemned to the same labor in Lower Egypt. They erected granaries, treasure-cities, and other public buildings for the Egyptian monarch. It has been supposed by some that the captive foreigners represented on the monuments as engaged in brick-making were Jews, and that the scenes represented were those of their actual operations in Egypt. Whether this supposition is correct or not, it is curious to discover other foreign captives occupied in the same manner, and overlooked by similar 'taskmasters,' and performing the very same labors as the Israelites described in the Bible; and it is worthy of remark, as noticed by Wilkinson, that more bricks bearing the name of Thothmes III (who is supposed to have been the king at the time of the Exode) have been discovered than at any other period.
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