The apothecaries were the spice makers, important persons in the East, where spices are so largely used in cooking, and where so many sweet-smelling and aromatic spices are employed in embalming the dead.
Then, passing on, we see the tower which protected the furnaces or brick kilns, in which the bricks were made which had been used in rebuilding the houses of the city.

So unsettled was the country, that it is supposed it was found necessary to erect a tower for the defence of these brick-makers, who were often at work by night as well as by day.
Close to the furnace tower we see a strange sight, and one which is well worthy of our notice.

This part of the wall deserves our earnest attention, for here are actually young ladies engaged in the work, standing, trowel in hand, toiling away side by side with the other workmen.

Who are these girls?
They are the daughters of Shallum, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem (ver.

12) (or rather of the country round Jerusalem).