The word used for mortar
comes from a word meaning to pound.
A mortar itself is a bowl in which a substance is pounded (Proverbs 27:22). The Mortar
in view here (the NIV has market district
) refers possibly to a certain district within Jerusalem, an area hollowed out where merchants gathered.1 Or it could refer to the whole of the city of Jerusalem, which could itself be compared to a mortar or pounding place, encircled as it was by higher hills. In that case, the prophet would be saying that God in his judgment shall grind the whole of the city as though it were encased in a mortar.
2
11 Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off.