Genesis 11:3

New English Translation

³Then they said to one another,^[a] “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”^[b] (They had brick instead of stone and tar^[c] instead of mortar.)^[d]

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Footnotes

Genesis 11:3 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
Genesis 11:3 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilb^enah l^evenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisr^efah 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).
Genesis 11:3 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
Genesis 11:3 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.