Discovery BoxGenesis 11:3 
Context11:3 Then they said to one another, 1 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” 2 (They had brick instead of stone and tar 3 instead of mortar.) 4
Genesis 29:8
Context29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water 5 the sheep.”
1 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
2 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
3 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
4 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
5 tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.
