They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
NIV
They made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar, brick, and all kinds of work in the field. All their service was with harshness and severity.
AMP
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
KJV
Wail, you who live in the market district; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with silver will be destroyed.
NIV
Wail, you inhabitants of the Mortar[those located in the hollow part of the city]! For all the merchant people, like the people of Canaan, will be silent [entirely destroyed]; all those who weighed out silver and were loaded with it will be cut off.
AMP
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
KJV
The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.
NIV
The people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it; and it tasted like cakes baked with fresh oil.
AMP
And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
KJV
Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork!
NIV
Draw for yourself the water [necessary] for a [long continued] siege, make strong your fortresses! Go down into the clay pits and trample the mortar; make ready the brickkiln [to burn bricks for the bulwarks]!
AMP
Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.
KJV
"I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes – one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay."
NIV
I have raised up and impelled to action one from the north [Cyrus], and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls upon My name [recognizing that his victories have been granted to him by Me]. And he shall tread upon rulers and deputies as upon mortar and as the potter treads clay. [He comes with the suddenness of a comet, but none of the idol oracles of the nations has anticipated it.][II Chron. 36:23; Ezra 1:1-3.]AMP
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.
KJV
It must be torn down – its stones, timbers and all the plaster – and taken out of the town to an unclean place.
NIV
He shall tear down the house--its stones and its timber and all the plaster or mortar of the house--and shall carry them forth out of the city to an unclean place.
AMP
And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
KJV
He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.
NIV
He shall cause the house to be scraped within round about and the plaster or mortar that is scraped off to be emptied out in an unclean place outside the city.
AMP
And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place:
KJV
