Genesis 11:3

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 

Ge 11:4,7; Ge 14:10; Ex 1:14; Ex 2:3; Ex 5:7-18; 2Sa 12:31; Ps 64:5; Pr 1:11; Ec 2:1; Isa 5:5; Isa 9:10; Isa 41:6,7; Isa 65:3; Na 3:14; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:24; Jas 4:13; Jas 5:1

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.