Lime

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LIME (sîdh, LXX [Note: Septuagint.] konia) is mentioned by name in EV [Note: English Version.] only in Isa_33:12, Amo_2:1, Isa_33:12 ‘the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime,’ i.e. they shall he so utterly consumed as to be comparable to the heap of quicklime that is left after limestone has been burned in a furnace. In Amo_2:1 the prophet denounces Moab because they ‘burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime’—phosphate of lime being the chief ingredient of the ash of well-burned bones. In Deu_27:2; Deu_27:4 sîdh occurs both as vb. and noun, but is rendered ‘plaister.’ For Isa_27:9 see Chalk-stones. The ‘whited sepulchres’ of Mat_23:27 and the ‘whited wall’ of Act_23:3 are allusions to the whitewashing of tombs with diluted quicklime so as to render them conspicuous, and of walls for purposes of embellishment.
J. C. Lambert.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Lime. The substance obtained form limestone, shells, etc., by heat. It is noticed only three times in the Bible, namely, in Deu_27:2. (Authorized Version, "plaster"), Isa_33:12 and Amo_2:1
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

שיר , Deu_27:2; Deu_27:4; Isa_33:12; Amo_2:1; a soft friable substance, obtained by calcining or burning stones, shells, or the like. From Isa_33:12, it appears that it was made in a kiln lighted with thorn bushes; and from Amo_2:1, that bones were sometimes calcined for lime. The use of it was for plaster or cement, the first mention of which is in Deuteronomy 27, where Moses directed the elders of the people, saying, “Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord your God giveth you, that you shall set up great stones, and plaster them with plaster, and shall write upon them all the words of this law,” &c. The book of the law, in order to render it the more sacred, was deposited beside the ark of the covenant. The guardians of the law, to whom was entrusted the duty of making faithful transcripts of it, were the priests. But Moses did not account even this precaution sufficient for the due preservation of his law in its original purity; for he commanded that it should beside be engraven on stones, and these stones kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that a genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted even to the latest generations.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

lı̄m ((1) שׂיד, sı̄dh; compare Arabic shâd, ?to plaster?; (2) גּיר, gı̄r; compare Arabic jı̂r, ?gypsum? or ?quick-lime?; (3) אבני־גר, 'abenē-ghir): Sı̄dh is translated ?lime? in Isa_33:12, ?And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire,? and in Amo_2:1, ?He burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.? It is translated ?plaster? in Deu_27:2, ?Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster,? also in Deu_27:4. Gı̄r is translated ?plaster? in Dan_5:5, ?wrote ... upon the plaster of the wall.? In Isa_27:9 we have, ?He maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones? ('abhenē-ghir).
Everywhere in Palestine limestone is at hand which can be converted into lime. The lime-kiln is a thick-walled, cylindrical or conical, roofless structure built of rough stones without mortar, the spaces between the stones being plastered with clay. It is usually built on the side of a hill which is slightly excavated for it, so that the sloping, external wall of the kiln rises much higher from the ground on the lower side than on the upper. The builders leave a passage or tunnel through the base of the thick wall on the lower side. The whole interior is filled with carefully packed fragments of limestone, and large piles of thorny-burner and other shrubs to serve as fuel are gathered about the kiln. The fuel is introduced through the tunnel to the base of the limestone in the kiln, and as the fire rises through the mass of broken limestone a strong draft is created. Relays of men are kept busy supplying fuel day and night. By day a column of black smoke rises from the kiln, and at night the flames may be seen bursting from the top. Several days are required to reduce the stone to lime, the amount of time depending upon the size of the kiln and upon the nature of the fuel. At the present day, mineral coal imported from Europe is sometimes employed, and requires much less time than the shrubs which are ordinarily used. See CHALKSTONE; CLAY.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Lime
(שַׂיד, sid, perh. from its boiling or effervescing when slaked; Isa_33:12; Amo_2:1; rendered "plaster" in Deu_2:2; Deu_2:4; the same word is used for lime in Arab. and Syr.), a well-known mineral substance, which is a very prevalent ingredient in rocks, and, combined with carbonic acid, forms marble, chalk, and limestone, of various degrees of hardness and every variety of color. Limestone is the prevailing constituent of the mountains of Syria; it occurs under various modifications of texture, color, form, and intermixture in different parts of the country. The purest carbonate of lime is found in calcareous spar, whose crystals assume a variety of forms, all, however, resulting from a primary rhomboid. Under the action of fire, carbonate of lime loses its carbonic acid and becomes caustic lime, which has a hot, pungent taste. SEE CHALK.
If lime be subjected to an intense heat, it fuses into transparent glass. When heated under great pressure, it melts, but retains its carbonic acid. The modern mode of manufacturing common or "quick" lime was known in ancient times. Lime is obtained by calcining or burning marble, limestone, chalk, shells, bones, and other substances to drive off the carbonic acid. From Isa_32:12 it appears that lime was made in a kiln lighted with thorn-bushes. Dr. Thomson remarks, "It is a curious fidelity to real life that, when the thorns are merely to be destroyed, they are never cut up, but are set on fire where they grow. They are only cut up for the lime-kiln" (Land and Book, 1:81). SEE FURNACE.
In Amo_2:1 it is said that the king of Moab "burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime." The interpretation of the Targum and some of the rabbins is that the burnt bones were made into lime and used by the conqueror for plastering his palace. The same Hebrew word occurs in Deu_27:2-4 : "Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister; and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law." It is probable that the same mode of perpetuating inscriptions was followed as we know was customary in Egypt. In that country we find paintings and hieroglyphic writing upon plaster, which is frequently laid upon the natural rock, and, after the lapse of perhaps more than three thousand years, we find the plaster still firm, and the colors of the figures painted on it still remarkably fresh. The process of covering the rock with plaster is thus described: " 'The ground was covered with a thick laver of fine plaster, consisting of lime and gypsum, which was carefully smoothed and polished. Upon this a thin coat of lime white-wash was laid, and on it the colors were painted, which were bound fast either with animal glue or occasionally with wax" (Egyptian Antiq., in Lib. of Entertaining Knowl.). SEE PLASTER.
If it be insisted that the words of the law were actually cut in the rock, it would seem best to understand that the Hebrew word sid does not here mean a "plaister," but indicates that the stones, after they had been engraved, were covered with a coat of tenacious lime white-wash, employed for similar purposes by the Egyptians, who, when the face of a rock had been sculptured in relievo, covered the whole with a coat of this wash, and then painted their sculptured figures (Kitto's Pict. Bible, note ad loc.). SEE MORTAR.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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