Jeremiah 43:9

hide them in mortar in the brickwork mg. lay them with mortar in the pavement(or square). The MT. is questionable here. The words for "in the mortar" and "in the brickwork" resemble each other, the first occurring nowhere else. The LXX read simply "in the fore-court," which is not justified by the Hebrew as we have it. Aq. Symm. Theod. have "in secret," omitting one of the consonants of the Hebrew word for "in mortar," and this probably gives us the true meaning, viz. secretly, in the brickwork. The incident (so Erbt and Co.) perhaps occurred at night. This is not inconsistent with the words "in the sight of the men of Judah," for cp. Ezekiel 12:7.

in the brickwork If we keep the text as it stands, the word, which elsewhere means a brick-mould, may here mean something quadrangular (see mg.). It is perhaps "the large oblong brick pavement close to the palace fort built by Psammetichus I (b.c. 664 610), which was excavated by Prof. Petrie at Tell Defneh in 1886." Dr., p. 258, who adds references to Petrie and Maspero.