| Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (n.) A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp. 2. (n.) Bricks, collectively, as designating that kind of material; as, a load of brick; a thousand of brick. 3. (n.) Any oblong rectangular mass; as, a brick of maple sugar; a penny brick (of bread). 4. (n.) A good fellow; a merry person; as, you 're a brick. 5. (v. t.) To lay or pave with bricks; to surround, line, or construct with bricks. 6. (v. t.) To imitate or counterfeit a brick wall on, as by smearing plaster with red ocher, making the joints with an edge tool, and pointing them. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia BRICK (lebhenah): The ancient Egyptian word appears in the modern Egyptian Arabic toob. In Syria the sun-baked bricks are commonly called libn or lebin, from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew word.
Bricks are mentioned only a few times in the Bible. The story of how the Children of Israel, while in bondage in Egypt, had their task of brick-making made more irksome by being required to collect their own straw is one of the most familiar of Bible narratives (Exodus 1:14; Exodus 5:7, 10-19).
Modern excavations at Pithom in Egypt (Exodus 1:11) show that most of the bricks of which that store-city was built were made of mud and straw baked in the sun. These ruins are chosen as an example from among the many ancient brick structures because they probably represent the work of the very Hebrew slaves who complained so bitterly of their royal taskmaster. In some of the upper courses rushes had been substituted for straw, and still other bricks had no fibrous material. These variations could be explained by a scarcity of straw at that time, since, when there was a shortage in the crops, all the straw (Arabic, tibn) was needed for feeding the animals. It may be that when the order came for the workmen to provide their own straw they found it impossible to gather sufficient and still furnish the required number of bricks (Exodus 5:8). However, the quality of clay of which some of the bricks were made was such that no straw was needed.
Brickmaking in early Egyptian history was a government monopoly. The fact that the government pressed into service her Asiatic captives, among whom were the Children of Israel, made it impossible for independent makers to compete. The early bricks usually bore the government, stamp or the stamp of some temple authorized to use the captives for brick manufacture. The methods employed by the ancient Egyptians differ in no respect from the modern procedure in that country. The Nile mud is thoroughly slipped or mixed and then rendered more cohesive by the addition of chopped straw or stubble. The pasty mass is next worked into a mould made in the shape of a box without a bottom. If the sides of the mould have been dusted with dry earth it will easily slip off and the brick is allowed to dry in the sun until it becomes so hard that the blow of a hammer is often necessary to break it.
When the children of Israel emigrated to their new country they found the same methods of brickmaking employed by the inhabitants, methods which are still in vogue throughout the greater part of Palestine and Syria. In the interior of the country, especially where the building stone is scarce or of poor quality, the houses are made of sun-baked brick (libn). Frequently the west and south walls, which are exposed most to the winter storms, are made of hewn stone and the rest of the structure of bricks. When the brick-laying is finished the house is plastered inside and outside with the same material of which the bricks are made and finally whitewashed or painted with grey- or yellow-colored earth. The outer coating of plaster must be renewed from year to year. In some of the villages of northern Syria the brick houses are dome-shaped, looking much like beehives. In the defiant assertion of Isaiah 9:10 the superiority of hewn stone over bricks implied a greater difference in cost and stability than exists between a frame house and a stone house in western lands today.
In the buildings of ancient Babylonia burnt bricks were used. These have been found by modern excavators, which confirms the description of Genesis 11:3. Burnt bricks were rarely used in Egypt before the Roman period and in Palestine their use for building purposes was unknown. Specimens of partially burnt, glazed bricks have been found in Babylonia and recently in one of the Hittite mounds of northern Syria. These were probably used for decorative purposes only. If burnt bricks had been generally used in Palestine, races of them would have been found with the pottery which is so abundant in the ruins (see POTTERY).
The fact that unburnt bricks were so commonly used explains how the sites of such cities as ancient Jericho could have become lost for so many centuries. When the houses and walls fell they formed a heap of earth not distinguishable from the surrounding soil. The wood rotted and the iron rusted away, leaving for the excavator a few bronze and stone implements and the fragments of pottery which are so precious as a means of identification. The "tels" or mounds of Palestine and Syria often represent the ruins of several such cities one above the other.
LITERATURE.
H. A. Harper, The Bible and Modern Discoveries; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians; Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt; Hilprecht, Recent Research in Bible Lands.
James A. Patch |  | Multi-Version Concordance Brick (10 Occurrences) Genesis 11:3 They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. (Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 1:14 and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 5:7 "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 5:14 The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, "Why haven't you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?" (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Exodus 5:16 No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us,'Make brick!' and behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people." (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 2 Samuel 12:31 He brought forth the people who were therein, and put them under saws, and under iron picks, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and he did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Isaiah 65:3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks; (Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Jeremiah 43:9 Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; (WEB KJV ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV) Ezekiel 4:1 And thou, son of man, take thee a brick, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, Jerusalem: (DBY YLT NAS RSV) Nahum 3:14 Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) |
