Ezekiel 13:10. One built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar.
See also Ezekiel 22:28.
Kitto is of the opinion that reference is here made to “cob-walls”; that is, walls which are made of beaten earth rammed into molds or boxes, to give shape and consistence, and then emptied from the molds, layer by layer, on the wall, where it dries as the work goes on. Such walls cannot stand the effects of the weather, and houses built on this principle soon crumble and decay. See note on Job 15:28 (#411). To protect them from the weather a very fine mortar is sometimes made, which is laid thickly on the outside the walls. When this mortar is properly mixed with lime it answers the purpose designed; but where the lime is left out, as is often the case, the “untempered mortar” is no protection. For mode of making mortar, see note on Leviticus 14:42 (#159).
Some commentators, however, translate taphel, which in our version is rendered “untempered mortar,” by the word “whitewash.” They represent the idea of the text to be the figure of a wall of unendurable material, and coated, not with cement which might protect it, but with a mere thin covering of lime, which gives the wall a finished durable appearance, which its real character does not warrant. Thus Paul calls the high priest, “thou whited wall” (Acts 23:3). See note on “whited sepulchers” under Matthew 23:27 (#702).