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Genesis 11:9 | 29
The Tower of Babel

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Now the whole world had one language and a com mon speech . 2 As peo ple moved east ward , a they found a plain in Shinar b u and set tled there .
3 They said to each oth er , “ Come , let ’ s
make bricks v and bake them thor ough ly .” They used brick in stead of stone , and tar w for mortar . 4 Then they said , “ Come , let us build our selves a city , with a tow er that reach es to the heav ens , x so that we may make a name y for our selves ; other wise we will be scat tered over the face of the whole earth .” z
5 But the Lord came down a to see the
11:2 u Ge 10:10 11:3 v Ex 1:14 w Ge 14:10
11:4 x Dt 1:28 ; 9:1 y Ge 6:4 z Dt 4:27
11:5 a ver 7 ; Ge 18:21 ; Ex 3:8 ; 19:11 , ​ 18 , ​20
11:7 b Ge 1:26 c Ge 42:23
11:8 d Ge 9:19 ; Lk 1:51 11:9 e Ge 10:10 city and the tow er the peo ple were building . 6 The Lord said , “ If as one peo ple speak ing the same lan guage they have begun to do this , then noth ing they plan to do will be im pos si ble for them . 7 Come , let us b go down and con fuse their lan guage so they will not un der stand each oth er .” c
8 So the Lord scat tered them from there
over all the earth , d and they stopped building the city . 9 That is why it was called Babel c e — ​be cause there the Lord con fused the lan guage of the whole world . From
a 2 Or from the east ; or in the east b 2 That is ,
Babylonia c 9 That is , Babylon ; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused .
11:1 one language . A Sumerian epic entitled Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta speaks of a time when there was only harmony among people and “ the whole universe in unison spoke to Enlil in one tongue .” Speech was then changed and “ contention ” was brought into it . Nothing else in this account parallels the tower of Babel , but it indicates that confusion of language by deity was a known theme in the ancient world . 11:2 moved eastward . Geological and hydrological studies and migration patterns discernible from the fourth and third millennia BC suggest that there was a drying out of the southern alluvial plain as the Persian Gulf receded and a corresponding population movement into that plain toward the end of the fourth millennium BC . This period , known as the Uruk Phase , features technological advances in urbanization , architecture , technology and language that correspond to elements referred to in v . 3 ( see note ). Shinar . The Hebrew term ( shinar ) refers to the area that ancient Near Eastern texts refer to as Sumer . It covered the southern part of the Tigris-Euphrates River basin as far north as Sippar , where the rivers converge in the area of modern southern Iraq . Major cities of the region included Kish , Nippur , Shuruppak , Girsu , Uruk , Eridu and Ur . This is the area where urbanization developed and is the heartland of Mesopotamian civilization . 11:3 make bricks and bake them . Stone is not readily available in the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia , so a logical economical choice is to use brick — ​there is plenty of mud . Mud brick , however , is not durable , so it was a great technological development to discover that baking the brick made it as durable as stone . This was still an expensive process , since the kilns had to be fueled . As a result , mud brick was used as much as possible , with baked brick used only for outer shells of important buildings or where waterproofing was desirable . No baked bricks have been found earlier than the Uruk period ( latter part of the fourth millennium BC ). 11:4 a city , with a tower . One single architectural feature dominated the landscape of early Mesopotamian cities : towers known as ziggurats ( see the article “ Ziggurats ,” p . 30 ). In the earliest stages of urbanization , the city was not designed for the private sector . People did not live in the city . Instead , it was comprised of the public buildings , such as administrative buildings , and granaries , which were mostly connected with the temple . Consequently , the city was , in effect , a temple complex . reaches to the heavens . Throughout Mesopotamian literature , almost every occurrence of the expression describing a building “ with its head in the heavens ” refers to a temple with a ziggurat ( see the article “ Ziggurats ,” p . 30 ). It is this language , along with the indication that God “ came down ” ( v . 5 ), that gives textual confirmation that the tower is a ziggurat . This would have been transparent to the ancient reader . In keeping with the negative results of the project here , the reader of Genesis will find a few of the omens in the Shumma Alu series remarkable : “ If a city lifts its head to the midst of heaven , that city will be abandoned ” ( 1.15 ), and “ If a city rises like a mountain peak to the midst of heaven , that city will be turned to a ruin ” ( 1.16 ). Yet Mesopotamian cities were regularly built on high ground , with the temple on the highest ground . The wording of these omens understood in the context of the omen series is essentially about exceeding natural boundaries to the effect that a city can overreach itself to rival sacred structures and thus bring about its own destruction . make a name . The ancient world placed immense value on the sense of continuity from one generation to another . In some cultures a person ’ s continued comfort in the afterlife was dependent on care from descendants in the land of the living . The details often involved memorial meals and various regular mortuary rites , but more important for this passage , they provided opportunity for the name of the deceased to be spoken . There is continued life and vitality as long as one is remembered . The building of monuments could also contribute to the desirable end result , as could achievements and adventures of various sorts . The important point here is that the desire to make a name in the ancient world is common to all . The more people who remember one ’ s name , the more secure is one ’ s existence in the afterlife . While there is nothing inherently evil or sinful in the desire to be remembered ( e . g ., God promises to “ make your name great ” for Abraham in 12:2 and David in 2Sa 7:9 ), this desire may become obsessive or motivate evil or sinful behavior . scattered . The fear of scattering is directly related ( both syntactically and conceptually ) to the previously stated desire to make a name . Remembrance takes place in the vicinity of the burial ground . Descendants who move away ( as Abraham does in ch . 12 ) cut the ties of continuity between the past and the present . Though some have considered this desire not to scatter as disobedience to the blessing in 1:28 , it must be recognized that the blessing does not relate to scattering , only to filling — ​far different issues . God scattered them , not because it was wrong for them to be together , but because their desire to retain continuity was causing them to launch flawed strategies . 11:5 the Lord came down . Precisely the reason the tower was built — ​for God to come down ( see the article “ Ziggurats ,” p . 30 ). Unfortunately , rather than being pleased to take up his residence among the people , God finds it an occasion for counteraction . Rather than being pleased at the convenience , he is distressed by the pagan concepts inherent in the nature of the ziggurat .