Genesis 11:3

“And they sayd one to another; Goe to, let vs make bricke, and burne them thorowly. And they had bricke for stone, and slime had they for morter.”

1611 King James Version (KJV)




Viewing the original 1611 KJV with archaic English spelling.
Click to switch to the Standard KJV.

Other Translations

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.
- King James Version

They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn {them} thoroughly. And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar."
- New American Standard Version (1995)

And they said one to another, Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
- American Standard Version (1901)

And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks, burning them well. And they had bricks for stone, putting them together with sticky earth.
- Basic English Bible

And they said one to another, Come on, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
- Darby Bible

And they said one to another, come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
- Webster's Bible

They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
- World English Bible

and they say each one to his neighbour, `Give help, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly:' and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar.
- Youngs Literal Bible

And they said one to another: 'Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
- Jewish Publication Society Bible

Bible commentary

Wesley's Notes for Genesis 11:3


11:3 Go to, let us make brick, let us build us a city - The country being a plain, yielded neither stone nor morter, yet that did not discourage them, but they made brick to serve instead of stone, and slime, or pitch, instead of morter. Some think they intended hereby to secure themselves against the waters of another flood, but if they had, they would have chosen to build upon a mountain rather than upon a plain. But two things it seems they aimed at in building. To make them a name: they would do something to be talked of by posterity. But they could not gain this point; for we do not find in any history the name of so much as one of these Babel - builders. Philo Judeus saith they engraved every one his name upon a brick; yet neither did that serve their purpose. They did it to prevent their dispersion; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth - It was done (saith Josephus) in disobedience to that command, #Gen 9:1|, replenish the earth. God orders them to scatter. No, say they, we will live and die together. In order hereunto they engage themselves and one another in this vast undertaking. That they might unite in one glorious empire, they resolve to build this city and tower, to be the metropolis of their kingdom, and the center of their unity.


Discussion for Genesis 11

  • Israel
    the tower of babel is the pyramids. in my opinion...from the text it says they began to build a tower that reaches unto heaven....and in verse 8, it says they were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.....AND THEY LEFT OFF TO BUILD THE CITY. Although God did change their language,and scattered them, they still had the idea......that is why their are pyramids all ver the earth........
  • Evangelist Chatauna Robinson
    Hello Falco Sarai named was changed to Sarah Genesis 17 15. God then fulfilled his promise of given her a child in Genesis 21 1 thru 3.
  • Falco
    That is a very good chapter but it 's sad that sarai had no children
  • Evangelist Chatauna Robinson
    Hello Bremmer Yes, from Adam to the tower of Babel they spoke one language, Genesis 11 6. You are talking about the descendants of Noah s son Shem, Genesis 11 11 thru 18. This only backs up the scriptures saying that all life was destroyed except for the 8 souls in the Ark along with the animals that God spared. According to the scripture once again the Earth was populated by Noah and his sons there was no other people who survived after the flood, but Noah s family. Genesis 9 19 These are the three sons of Noah and of them was the whole earth overspread . Also in Genesis Chapter 11 is talking about the tower of Babel. In short, if I can say it like this, when they left the Ark they did not do what God told them to. They were to scatter over the whole Earth and populate it. However, what they did instead was pick a spot and decided to build a tower to heaven. God seeing this came confused their language and scattered them all over the Earth each according to the many languages that they were now speaking. The land was divided to each clan that spoke the same language.
  • Bremmer
    Matt Rosas 's At one time the earth was one land mass before the days of Eber 's son Peleg which means divided To Eber were born two sons the name of the one was Peleg,3 for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother s name was Joktan. this was only around 200 years after the flood the earths population was small and all were descendents of Noah who was still alive so everyone came from one grand father.before Noah everyone came from Adam they only had one language.
  • Evangelist Chatauna Robinson
    Hello Everyone First let me say this, the Bible is broken up into seven dispensations of time. God has always had one way of salvation under each dispensation. These passages of scriptures fall up under the Third Dispensation which is Human Government. This is where man was giving authority to govern other men and visit punishment upon crime, Genesis 9 6. Man was responsible to govern the world. The salvation under this dispensation was to replenish the earth. They were to spread out gradually over the face of it, Genesis 9 1. During this time the people spoke only one language and were of one speech, Genesis 11 1. Coming to the close of this dispensation we found that the people disobeyed God, they remained in one spot after their journey, and then they wanted to make a name for themselves, Genesis 11 2 thru 4. Now they started off trying to do the right thing by journeying to a land name Shinar but when they got there they stopped doing what they were supposed to do and decided not to go any further. They decided to make a name for themselves. How this dispensation ended was with God confusing their speech and scattering them abroad, Genesis 11 59. Webster states that the word Babel, means a confusion of voices, languages or sounds . The judgment was that God confused their language and scattered them abroad. Here were many languages were born.

What Do You Think of Genesis 11?

Share your own thoughts or commentary here...

Notify me if someone responds on this discussion/thread

Bible Options

Sponsored Links