And they said one to another, Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen had they for mortar.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Each one: not that every individual joined in this undertaking, considered, at least, as a rash and presumptuous attempt to save themselves from a second deluge. Some might innocently give in to it, meaning only to leave a monument to their common origin and friendship, before they separated into distant countries. Slime: literally bitumen. (Haydock)
The Hebrew, chomer, means also slime, or mortar. Stone is very scarce in that country, but the earth is fat, and very proper to make brick; it also abounds in naphtha, bitumen: hence the ancients notice the brick walls of Babylon. (Calmet)
