About…
lime in the Bible

Hebrew: שִׂיד —transliteration: sid —meaning: lime or whitewash —occurrences: 2

From Isaiah 33:12 it appears that lime was produced from limestone in kilns fired by thorn-bushes or other flammables.

Limestone is present in many biblical lands, including Israel and Egypt (used in building pyramids), and is the chief constituent of the mountains of Syria.

Limestone mining is an important source of wealth in the area of modern Tafilah, Jordan (ancient Tophel). Ancient ruins there indicate this mining goes far back in history.

The same Hebrew word is used in Deuteronomy 27, and can be translated as “plaster” or a lime whitewash coating.

…you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law… you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. —Deuteronomy 27:2-4 excerpt

Products

Lime is a valuable product used in many ways in biblical times.

• Lime is a cement.
• Mortar— Ancient Egyptians used lime in their contstuction. The earliest documented use of lime as a construction material was approximately 4000 BC when it was used in Egypt for plastering the pyramids. The Egyptians also incorporated various limes into their temples, as well as their homes.
• A lime mortar floor dating back to 7000 BC was discovered in Yiftah El in modern Israel. “It was apparently manufactured from hydrated lime produced by strongly heating limestone and then slaking the product”—crumbling it by treatment with water.
• Roman concrete— Around the 4th century BC, the Romans discovered the principles of the hydraulic set of lime, which by the addition of highly reactive forms of silica and alumina, such as volcanic earths, could solidify rapidly even under water. The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic ash to create a pozzolanic reaction. When this was mixed with volcanic tuff and placed under seawater, the seawater hydrated the lime in an exothermic reaction that solidified the mixture. Roman roads used a base core of lime cement, and as a filler to hold together blocks of road stones.
• Plaster— Very ancient people of 'Ain Ghazal (gazelle springs) in Jordan used lime mixed with unheated crushed limestone to make plaster which was used on a large scale for covering walls, floors, and hearths in their houses. Early Egyptian tombs and walls were coated with lime and gypsum plaster and the finished surface was often painted or decorated.
• Stucco— Modelled stucco was employed throughout the Roman Empire. The Romans used mixtures of lime and sand to build up preparatory layers over which finer applications of gypsum, lime, sand and marble dust were mad.
• Whitewash / lime paint
• Peter’s house in Capernaum — escavations revealed that its pavements received floors of lime several times. Many pieces of broken lamps were found in the thin layers of lime.
• Liming— leather processing from raw animal hides
• Parchment production

Lime made from bones

In Amos 2:1, it is recorded that the king of Moab “burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.”

“The peoples will be burned to lime…” —Isaiah 33:12 excerpt

More information

• More about lime (site search)
• About stone(s) in the Bible
• Quarries
• Rock
• Marble
• Masons
• Building
• Carving
• Graving
• What is a graven image?
• Walls in the Bible
• Gates of stone
• Are stone hinges mentioned in the Bible?
• Wine presses
• Olive presses
• Mill stones
• Towers
• Buildings
• What is the Moabite Stone?
• Cornerstones
• Grinding stones
• Stoning
• BIBLICAL BURIAL SITES—Have the burial sites of any people in the Bible been found?
• Burial in the Bible
• 
  Cities of the Bible—names, descriptions, locations and types