THE TOWER OF BABEL

The Tower of Babel

  The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Languages Genesis 11

"Babel" is composed of two words, "bab" meaning "gate" and "el," "god." Hence, "the gate of god." A related word in Hebrew, "balal" means "confusion."

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men migrated from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'

 Yahweh came down to see what they did and said: "They are one people and have one language, and nothing will be withholden from them which they purpose to do." So Yahweh said, "Come, let us go down and confound their speech." And so Yahweh scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, and they left off building the city, which was called Babel "because Yahweh there confounded the language of all the Earth."Genesis 11:5-8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.