Genesis 11:3

The people made bricks out of clay. Clay is a kind of soil. If clay is wet, one can form it into bricks. Sometimes people let the sun dry the bricks so that they become hard. Then they use the bricks to make buildings. But these people burned their bricks. That means that they dried them by a fire. When the bricks became very hot, they became very hard and strong. So after the bricks cooled, people could make very tall buildings.

Bitumen is a black substance that people find in the ground. People also use it in ships. They put it on cracks in ships so that the ships do not leak. Noah put bitumen on the *ark. (See Genesis 6:14.)

v4 Then they said, ‘Let us build a city for ourselves. Let us build a very tall building. Its top will reach heaven. We will make ourselves famous. And we will not scatter over the whole surface of the earth.’ v5 So the men built the city and the tall building. The *Lord came down from heaven in order to see the city and the building.

v6 And the *Lord said, ‘Look! They are one nation. They have one language. This is only the beginning of the things that they will do. Whatever they propose to do, they will be able to do it. v7 Let us go down to the earth. We will confuse their language so that they will not understand each other’s words.’