Thick clay

(Habakkuk 2:6) is correctly rendered in the Revised Version "pledges." The Chaldean power is here represented as a rapacious usurer, accumulating the wealth that belonged to others.

This word is used of sediment found in pits or in streets (Isaiah 57:20; Jeremiah 38:60), of dust mixed with spittle (John 9:6), and of potter's clay (Isaiah 41:25; Nahum 3:14; Jeremiah 18:1-6; Romans 9:21). Clay was used for sealing (Job 38:14; Jeremiah 32:14). Our Lord's tomb may have been thus sealed (Matthew 27:66). The practice of sealing doors with clay is still common in the East. Clay was also in primitive times used for mortar (Genesis 11:3). The "clay ground" in which the large vessels of the temple were cast (1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chronicles 4:17) was a compact loam fitted for the purpose. The expression literally rendered is, "in the thickness of the ground,", meaning, "in stiff ground" or in clay.

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A soft earth, which is plastic, or may be molded with the hands, consisting of hydrous silicate of aluminium. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.

2. (n.) Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles.

3. (v. t.) To cover or manure with clay.

4. (v. t.) To clarify by filtering through clay, as sugar.