Bricks
Morrish Bible Dictionary [1]
As early as Genesis 11:3 we read of bricks being made and burnt; and in Egypt the bricks were made with an admixture of straw. When the Israelites had to find their own straw or stubble and yet make as many bricks per day, it is probable that but little straw was used. Some ancient bricks have been found which had apparently no straw in them. Many of the bricks were stamped with the name of the reigning monarch.
On the monuments in a tomb the process of brick-making in Egypt is fully delineated: a task-master stands over the men with a stick in his hand, as doubtless was the case in the time of Moses. Exodus 5:7-19 . Bricks brought from Egypt vary in size, from 20 inches to 14-1/4 in. long, 8-3/4 in. to 6-1/2 in. wide, and 7 in. to 4-1/2 in. thick. There is a brick from Babylon in the British Museum, which bears the inscription in cuneiform characters "I am Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the restorer of the temples Sag-ili and Zida, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon." It measures 13 in. by 13, and 4 in. thick. Other bricks from Chaldea are more ancient still.
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [2]
Were usually made of clay, dried and hardened in the sun, Genesis 11:3 , though brick-kilns were sometimes used, 2 Samuel 12:31 Nahum 3:14 . The tower of Babel was constructed of brick, cemented with bitumen. The bricks used were often a foot square; and great numbers of them are found, both in Babylon and Egypt, impressed with some royal or priestly stamp. The principal subject of interest connected with brick making is the fact that it was the labor in which the Hebrews in Egypt were most oppressed. On the monuments of Egypt, all the parts of this hard and ancient task-work are painted-the carrying, tempering, and molding of the clay, and the drying and pilling of the bricks-all done by foreigners under the orders of taskmasters. The straw was probably mixed with the clay to compact it. See Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians."
Easton's Bible Dictionary [3]
Exodus 1:13,14 2 Samuel 12:31 Jeremiah 43:9 Nahum 3:14Nebuchadnezzar
The bricks used in the tower of Babel were burnt bricks, cemented in the building by bitumen ( Genesis 11:3 ).
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [4]
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.
