Genesis 11:3

3. Said one to another Hebrews, each man to his neighbour .

Go to An obsolete English expression, equivalent to come on .

Burn them thoroughly In distinction from the sun-dried bricks, so common in Babylonia, which yet are very hard and durable .

They had brick for stone Stone being the building material with which the Hebrews were chiefly familiar in Egypt.

Slime Bitumen; mineral pitch or asphalt. Although the Babylonian plain has no quarries in or near it, yet, being largely composed of fine sand and clay, it furnishes ample material for the most beautiful and durable bricks. All the splendid edifices of Babylon were built of burnt or sun-dried brick. The plain also abounds in bitumen; called naphtha, when it appears as a thin yellow fluid; petroleum, when thicker and darker; and asphaltum when solid. This substance furnishes an imperishable cement. It was used by Noah in the construction of the ark; by the mother of Moses in the manufacture of her little papyrus boat; by the Egyptians in fastening the cerements of mummies; and is now used by the natives of ancient Shinar in making the ferry boats of the Tigris, which are simply round baskets, daubed with bitumen. The asphalt springs of Is, or Hit, a small stream flowing into the Euphrates, are mentioned by Herodotus, and are thus quaintly described by an old traveller: “Near unto which town (Hit on the river Hit) is a valley of pitch, very marvellous to behold, and a thing almost incredible, wherein are many springs throwing out abundantly a kind of black substance like unto tar, or pitch, which serveth all the countries thereabouts to make staunch their barks and boats, every one of which springs maketh a noise like a smith’s forge, in puffing and blowing out the matter, which never ceaseth, night or day, and the noise is heard a mile off, swallowing up all weighty things that come upon it. The Moors call it the mouth of hell.” Quoted in Rawlinson’s Herodotus, 1: 316.