Genesis 11:3

Then they said to each other, “◄Hey/Come on►, let’s form bricks and bake them to make them hard, for building!” So they used bricks instead of stones, and used tar instead of ◄mortar/a mixture of cement, sand and lime► to hold them together.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

In Context

2As people moved further east, they arrived at a plain in Babylonia region and began to live there.

4They said, “Hey, let’s build a city for ourselves! We also ought to build a very high tower that reaches up to the sky! In that way we will become famous! If we do not do this, we will be scattered all over the earth!”

Read all of Genesis 11

Cross References

Genesis 11:7So, okay/now, we will go down there and cause there to be many different languages, so that they will not be able to understand each other.”

Exodus 1:14and by making them slaves, they made their lives miserable. They forced them to build many buildings with mortar and bricks. They also forced them to do other work in the fields. In making them do all this work, the Egyptian officials treated them ruthlessly/cruelly.

Exodus 5:7“Do not continue to give the Israeli people straw for making bricks, as you have done previously. Make them go into the fields and gather straw for themselves.

Psalms 64:5They encourage each other about doing the evil things that they are planning to do; they talk with each other about where they can set traps to catch people, and they think, “No one [RHQ] will see what we are doing,

Ecclesiastes 2:1Then I said to myself, “Okay, I will try to do everything that I enjoy. I will find out whether doing what I enjoy can truly enable me to be happy.” But I found out that doing that was also useless/senseless.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 11:2-5

The Confusion of Tongues. ( b. c. 2247.) 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 11:3