Untempered Mortar
UNTEMPERED MORTAR (Heb. tāphēl). Mortar made of clay instead of slaked lime. It was smeared on the walls of houses made of small stones or mud bricks so as to prolong the life of the building. Ezekiel (13:10ff. kjv; niv “whitewash”) uses the term symbolically to refer to the flimsiness of the work of the false prophets.