And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top [is] in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

"Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

They encourage themselves [in] an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, "Who will see them?"

If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait to [shed] blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure"; but surely, this also [was] vanity.

And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; [And] break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

Everyone helped his neighbor, And said to his brother, "Be of good courage!"

So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith; He who smooths [with] the hammer [inspired] him who strikes the anvil, Saying, "It [is] ready for the soldering"; Then he fastened it with pegs, [That] it might not totter.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";

Come now, [you] rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon [you!]

but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage -- in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve [was] with rigor.

"You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

"Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words."

'Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.' "

And the taskmasters forced [them] to hurry, saying, "Fulfill your work, [your] daily quota, as when there was straw."

Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, "Why are you dealing thus with your servants?

But he said, "You [are] idle! Idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go [and] sacrifice to the LORD.'

And he brought out the people who [were] in it, and put [them to work] with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them cross over to the brick works. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

"The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace [them] with cedars."

A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick;

Draw your water for the siege! Fortify your strongholds! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Make strong the brick kiln!

Now the Valley of Siddim [was full of] asphalt pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; [some] fell there, and the remainder fled to the mountains.

But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid [it] in the reeds by the river's bank.