And each one said to his neighbour: Come, let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar.
Rashi
איש אל רעהו ONE TO ANOTHER — One nation to the other: Mizraim to Cush, Cush to Put. and Put to Canaan (Genesis Rabbah 38:6). הבה means, “Prepare yourselves”. Wherever the word הבה (come) occurs it has the meaning of “prepare”, meaning that they should get themselves ready and unite for some work or plan or burden (undertaking). “Come, get ready”: in old French appareiller; English to prepare. לבנים BRICKS — For there is no stone in Babel which is a plain. ונשרפה לשרפה AND BURN THEM THOROUGHLY — This is how bricks, which in old French are called Tuiles, English tiles, are made: they fire them in a furnace. לחמר FOR MORTAR to plaster the walls.
Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.