Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
9. Therefore was the name of it called Babel ] Babel is the regular Hebrew form of the name Babylon, see Gen 10:10. The etymology here given is popular; cf. Gen 16:14, Gen 19:22 (J). Like most popular etymologies, it rests on a resemblance of sound, and has no claim to scientific accuracy. “Babel” is not a Hebrew name from balal = “to confound”; but very probably an Assyrian name meaning the “Gate of God,” Bab-ilu.
confound ] Heb. balal = “to confound,” the same word as in Gen 11:7. To the Hebrew the sound of the name Babel suggested “confusion.” “Babel” is regarded as a contraction from a form Balbl (which does not exist in Hebrew, but occurs in Aramaic) = “Confusion”: so LXX . This derivation, so derogatory to the great Babylonian capital, could hardly have been drawn from any Babylonian source. The story (if, as in Gen 11:2-4, it shews acquaintance with Babylonia) has clearly come down to us through a channel which regarded Babylon as a foreigner and a foe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 11:9
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth
God causing confusion in order to restore peace
I.
GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION, BUT OF PEACE. Yet once, in His wise compassion, He made confusion in order to prevent it; He destroyed peace, that in the end He might restore it.
II. God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men, did, by that exercise of His power, THE BEST THING THAT COULD BE DONE TO CHECK AND RETARD THE RAPID GROWTH OF EVIL AND TO PREPARE THE MEANS BY WHICH MAN MIGHT BE BROUGHT BACK TO OBEDIENCE. While there was but one tongue, men easily corrupted each other; when there were many, evil communications were greatly hindered. God marred the Babel builders work, but it was in order to mar their wickedness; and meanwhile He had His own gracious designs for a remedy. Pentecost. (F. E. Paget, M. A.)
Divine order in confusion
1. The confusion of tongues was not at random. It was a systematic distribution of languages for the purpose of a systematic distribution of man in emigration. The dispersion was orderly, the difference of tongue corresponding to the differences of race. By these were the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations.
2. From the earliest period there has been manifested, in the history of scientific progress, an invincible faith among scientific men that the facts of nature are capable of being arranged in conformity with laws of geometry and algebra. In other words, all have a profound conviction of the existence of what Argyll calls the reign of law, i.e., order in the midst of apparent confusion and aimlessness.
3. There is no illogical course in arguing that those who believe in God as the Creator of order in nature have a right to conclude that He preserves the same order in history. The cataclysms in nature have an order and object; why not then the catastrophes of history. There is Divine order in the midst of historical confusion, as palpable and manifest as in that of science. Looking back upon the pathway which history has trodden, we can perceive traces of design–powerful evidences of an infinite aim–order in the midst of confusion. Over the wheels of history, as over the wheels in Ezekiels sublime vision, is the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (W. Adamson.)
The scattered builders
I. THE AMBITIOUS BUILDERS.
1. Worldly wisdom.
2. Desire for worldly power.
3. Worldly pride.
II. THE SUPREME RULER.
1. God looked.
2. God intervened.
3. God governed. So it is always.
God restrains the power of evil, and makes it serve Him (Psa 76:10). LEARN:
1. Not to be self-willed, proud, ambitious.
2. To submit to Gods will, and trust always in His wisdom and love. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
The tower of Babel
I. THE BUILDERS.
1. Numerous. For one hundred years the posterity of Noah had continued to increase.
2. Of one speech. Hence present variety of language corroborative of the dispersion; otherwise there must have been many sources of the human race.
3. Disobedient. Had been expressly commanded to replenish, i.e. refill, the earth. Instead of obeying God, they lived together. Thus, too, the population of the world was retarded. Men increase more rapidly in new countries.
4. United in rebellion.
II. THE BUILDING.
1. Purpose. Not to escape another flood, for not only had they the promise, but very few could in such a case escape that way. Probably it was to serve some idolatrous purpose, and be a landmark around which they could unite as one people and nation.
2. Material.
3. Character. Lofty. Eastern buildings not generally marked by loftiness. This, a grand and solitary exception.
III. THE INTERRUPTION.
1. The person. God, whom they thought least of, and practically defied.
2. The mode. Confound their language.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES.
1. The building abandoned. If some speaking one tongue had continued, the jealousy of the rest would have hindered. But so strange an event would confound them as well as their speech.
2. They separated. Into how many tribes or nations we know not. The most eminent philologists (as Bunsen, etc.) find three original stocks, which some even call the Semitic, Japhetic, and Hamitic.
3. The earth was more widely peopled. Thus was the Divine will enforced. But had this been obeyed, without the need of resorting to this compulsory method, how much more easily had missionary efforts, and commercial enterprises, etc., now been carried out. Thus the world is this day suffering through the sin of these builders of old. LEARN:
I. The sin and folly of disobeying God.
II. The ease with which God can punish sin.
III. The far-reaching consequence of sin.
IV. No confusion of tongues in heaven. All sing the one new song. (J. C. Gray.)
Lessons
1. How vain and disastrous it is for men to contend against God; they cannot effectually resist Him; they can only destroy themselves. Especially if their contention is against any of the plans and arrangements connected with His eternal covenant–if the work which they are opposing, or the providential dispensation against which they are rebelling, has a direct bearing on His glorious design for the redemption of the world, and the salvation of souls,–if they are labouring to shut out Christ, or what is Christs, from His own domains, from hearts and homes that should be His,–how idly and madly do they kick against the pricks!
2. How wise it is, and how blessed, to acquiesce in Gods allotment of the good things of life, and in His manner of bringing His purposes of love to pass! The blessed Lord is the God of Shem;–but Shem suffers wrong, and has to exercise long patience before deliverance comes. Still it is enough that Jehovah is his God; let him not be careful or anxious. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all other things shall be added unto you.
3. In regard to the duty and the destiny of nations, the purpose of God is here revealed.
(1) On the one hand, schemes of conquest, and of concentrated dominion, are seen not to be of God; and however He may sometimes make them subservient to His own purposes, He will always, in the end, pour contempt on the proud ambition of man.
(2) Orderly dispersion and colonization are of God. In particular, in the line of Japheth, to which we belong, and among the isles of the Gentiles, colonization seems to be especially the Divine rule.
(3) But even if Japheth should prove unfaithful in the use of the privileges and opportunities of his high calling, as enlarged by God, and permitted to dwell in the tents of Shem,–and for his unfaithfulness should be cast away,–there is hope for the world still. Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, is still, after all, the rallying watchword by which faith is quickened, and expectation stirred. For salvation is of the Jews; and it is concerning the seed of Shem that the animating question is put,–If their fall be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? (Rom 11:12). The Lord, whose name is blessed, is still the God of Shem: Israel is still beloved for the fathers sake.
(4) Finally, the division of languages, though an obstacle to schemes of human ambition, will not be suffered to be an obstacle to the triumph of the cause of God. Of this, God Himself gave a proof and pledge, in the miracle wrought on the day of Pentecost,–the counterpart of the miracle at Babel. The separation of nations will not hinder the unity of the faith. (R. S.Candlish, D. D.)
The dispersion at Babel
I. LET US INQUIRE WHO WERE DISPERSED OVER THE FACE OF THE EARTH AT THE DESTRUCTION OF BABEL. Who were those that lived on the plains of Shinar, built the tower of Babel, and were scattered over all the earth? It is evident they could not be the whole of mankind; for they had before been sent to the various places of their Divine destination. Some had gone to one quarter of the world, and some to another. Who, then, could the builders of Babel be that, after the general dispersion of mankind, were scattered over the earth? The Scripture history will inform us upon this subject. They were the sons of Ham; for the sacred historian tells us, The sons of Ham were Cush, and Misraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the sons of Raamab, Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: whereof it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. But how came Nimrod the son of Ham, and his posterity, at Babylon, where Babel was built? This portion of the earth was allotted to Shem; and Nimrod with all the posterity of Ham was appointed to go to Africa. What right, then, had Nimrod, or any of the sons of Ham, to take possession of the plains of Babylon? Undoubtedly they had no right at all. But this is the Scripture account of the event. And every region was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass in the journeying of the people from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar. The people, then, who journeyed from the east were not all the people of the earth, but only the posterity of Ham, and especially Nimrod and his posterity. This is a very rational account. But it is absurd to suppose that the posterity of Noah, who consisted of a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty thousand, should all move in a body from the rich and fertile country around Mount Ararat, where they first settled after the flood, without any Divine direction or natural necessity. Hence it is natural to conclude that the people who journeyed from the east to the plain of Shinar were Nimrod and his posterity. Especially when we reflect it is expressly said that the beginning of Nimrods kingdom was Babel. But how came Nimrod to pitch upon the plain of Shinar after the general dispersion of mankind, and after he was directed to go to Africa, a country far distant from Babylon? To this I would answer, There seems to be no account given of his conduct but the following. When the posterity of Shem and Japheth obeyed the Divine direction to separate and go to the places allotted them, the posterity of Ham, or at least Nimrod and his descendants, refused to obey the Divine command. In open defiance to God they moved from the east and came to the pleasant land of Babylon, and there by force of arms took the plain of Shinar out of the hands of the children of Shem. They determined not to disperse, as God had required, and as the other branches of Noahs family had done. This shows that they built Babel in rebellion against God, and that God had just cause to come down and defeat their impious design by confounding their language.
II. I now proceed TO INQUIRE WHAT WERE THE MOST REMARKABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE DISPERSION OF THE CHILDREN OF HAM AT THE DESTRUCTION OF BABEL AND THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGE.
1. That their dispersion was productive of war. They waged the first war after the flood in taking possession of Babylon. And after they were driven from thence they maintained their rebellious and warlike spirit. Their course was everywhere marked with violence and cruelty.
2. This knowing and powerful people carried the arts and sciences with them wherever they went. In these they excelled all other people. And notwithstanding their tyranny and cruelty, they did much to spread light and knowledge among the inhabitants of the earth. Of this they have left astonishing monuments in almost all parts of the world.
3. That this learned and ingenious people were gross idolaters, and spread idolatry through all nations whom they subdued and among whom they lived. They were the most corrupt and wicked part of Noahs family.
IMPROVEMENT.
1. This subject gives us reason to think that true religion prevailed and flourished for many years after the flood. Everything was suited to produce this happy effect. Neither Noah nor his family could ever forget the solemn, instructive, and affecting scenes through which they had passed, nor erase from their minds the deep impressions those scenes had made upon them. They would naturally relate to their children what they had seen, and heard, and felt during the awful period of the flood, and they again would relate the same things from one generation to another.
2. We learn from the Scripture history of mankind which we have been considering, that infidelity has been the principal source of the wars and fightings that have deluged the world in blood.
3. It appears from what has been said that all false religion is only a corruption of the true.
4. It appears from what has been said how much easier it is to spread any false religion in the world than the true religion.
5. It is a strong evidence in favour of the religion contained in the Bible that it has been so long preserved in the world, notwithstanding all mankind could do to destroy it.
6. We learn from what has been said, the deplorable state in which mankind in general have been involved for ages and are still involved. It is indeed a dark mystery that God has suffered them so long to walk in their own way without using such effectual means to enlighten and save them as He always has had power to use. But we have good reason to believe that He will yet bring light out of their darkness, holiness out of their blindness, and happiness out of their misery.
7. This subject shows the great reason that Christians have to expect, desire, and pray for a better state of things in the world. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Gods execution of vengeance falleth soon after His resolution.
2. Jehovah will be the executioner of His own sentence on the wicked.
3. It is Gods work to set confederates against each other who conspire against Him.
4. The place of sin may sometimes prove the place of vengeance.
5. Sinners consultations to strengthen themselves in one place may end in a universal dispersion.
6. The earth is overspread with sinners against God by His judgment taken on them.
7. The strongest councils of sin will be frustrated by God.
8. High resolutions of sinners fall short of all their ends (Gen 11:8). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Good architecture
Good architecture is the work of good and believing men. (J. Ruskin.)
Gods infinite resources for punishing sinners
This brings before us a hint of the unknown resources of God, in the matter of punishing those who disobey His will. Who could have thought of this method of scattering the builders of the city? God does not send a fire upon the builders; no terrible plague poisons the air; yet in an instant each workman is at a loss to understand the other, and each considers all the rest as but raving maniacs! Imagine the bewildering and painful scene! Men who have been working by each others side days and weeks are instantly conscious of inability to understand one anothers speech! New sounds, new accents, new words, but not a ray of intelligence in all! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. God has innumerable ways of showing His displeasure at human folly and human crime. A man may be pursuing a course of prosperity in which he is ignoring all that is moral and Divine, and men may be regarding him as the very model of success; yet, in an instant, Almighty God may blow upon his brain, and the man may sit down in a defeat which can never be reversed. God is not confined to one method of punishment. He touches a mans bones, and they melt; He breathes upon a mans brain, and henceforth he is not able to think. He comes in at night time and shakes the foundations of mans most trusted towers, and in the morning there is nought but a heap of ruins. He disorganizes mens memories, and in an instant they confuse all the recollections of their lifetime. He touches mans tongue, and the fluent speaker becomes a stammerer. He breaks the staff in twain, and he who was thus relying upon it is thrown down in utter helplessness. We know but little of what God means when He says Heaven; that word gives us but a dim hint of the infinite light and blessedness and triumph which are in reserve for the good. We have but a poor conception of what God means when He says Hell; that word is but a flickering spark compared with the infinite distress, and endless ruin and torment, which must befall every man who defies his Maker. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Confusion of language
Speaking of this confusion of language, may I not be permitted to inquire whether even in our own English tongue there is not today very serious confusion? Do men really mean words to be accepted in their plain common sense? Does not the acute man often tell his untrained client what he intends to do in language which has double meanings? Do we not sometimes utter the words that have one meaning to the world and another meaning to our own hearts? Yea does not always mean yea, nor does nay always mean nay; men sign papers with mental reservations; men utter words in their common meaning, and to themselves they interpret these words with secret significations. The same words do not mean the same thing under all circumstances and as spoken by different speakers. When a poor man says rich, he means one thing; when a millionaire says rich, he means something very different. Let us consider that there is morality even in the use of language. Let no man consider himself at liberty to trifle with the meaning of words. Language is the medium of intercourse between man and man, and on the interpretation of words great results depend. It behoves us, therefore, who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, so to speak as to leave ourselves without the painful reflection of having taken refuge in ambiguous expressions for the sake of saving ourselves from unpleasant results. It will be a sign that God is really with us as a nation, when a pure language is restored unto us–when man can trust the word of man, and depend with entire confidence upon the honour of his neighbour. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The confusion of tongues
The late Bishop Selwyn devoted a great part of his time to visiting the Melanesian Isles, and he thus writes home about the difficulty of languages: Nothing but a special interposition of the Divine power could have produced such a confusion of tongues as we find here. In islands not larger than the Isle of Wight we find dialects so distinct that the inhabitants of the various districts hold no communication one with another. (Old Testament Anecdotes.)
No architect
The late Mr. Alexander, the eminent architect, was under cross examination at Maidstone by Serjeant, afterwards Baron, Garrow, who wished to detract from the weight of his testimony, and, after asking him what was his name, he proceeded: You are a builder? No, sir, I am an architect. They are much the same. I beg your pardon, sir; I cannot admit that. I consider them to be totally different. Oh, indeed l Perhaps you will state wherein the difference consists? An architect, sir, conceives the design, prepares the plan, draws out the specifications–in short, supplies the mind; the builder is merely the bricklayer or the carpenter. The builder is the machine; the architect the power that puts it together and sets it going. Oh, very well, Mr. Architect, that will do. And now, after your very ingenious distinction without a difference, perhaps you can inform the court who was the architect of the Tower of Babel? The reply, for promptness and wit, is not to be rivalled in the history of rejoinder:–There was no architect, sir, and hence the confusion. (Old Testament Anecdotes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel] babel, from bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah; and this confounding did not so much imply the producing new languages, as giving them a different method of pronouncing the same words, and leading them to affix different ideas to them.
Besides Mr. Hutchinson’s opinion, (See Clarke on Ge 11:4,) there have been various conjectures concerning the purpose for which this tower was built. Some suppose it was intended to prevent the effects of another flood, by affording an asylum to the builders and their families in case of another general deluge. Others think that it was designed to be a grand city, the seat of government, in order to prevent a general dispersion. This God would not permit, as he had purposed that men should be dispersed over the earth, and therefore caused the means which they were using to prevent it to become the grand instrument of its accomplishment. Humanly speaking, the earth could not have so speedily peopled, had it not been for this very circumstance which the counsel of man had devised to prevent it. Some say that these builders were divided into seventy-two nations, with seventy-two different languages; but this is an idle, unfounded tale.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore is the name of it called Babel,…. The name of the city mentioned, and the tower also, which signifies “confusion”, as the Septuagint version renders it; and so Josephus w says the Hebrews call confusion “Babel”: perhaps this name was given it by the sons of Eber, or it might be a common name preserved in all languages, as some are; and though the first builders desisted from going on with building it, yet it seems that afterwards Nimrod went on with it, and completed it, and made it the beginning of his kingdom, or his capital city; and perhaps he and his family might continue after the confusion and dispersion somewhere near unto it, see Ge 10:10. The reason of its name is given,
because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and therefore it is false what is said by some, that the above city had its name from Babylon, the son of Belus:
and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and that it might be taken notice of and observed as a very wonderful and important event. These Babel builders were an emblem of self-righteous persons, who, as those were, are the greater part of the world, and, under different forms of religion, are all upon the same foot of a covenant of works; they all speak the same language; and indeed all men naturally do, declaring and seeking for justification by their own works; and journey from the east, depart from Christ, one of whose names is the east, or rising sun; they turn their backs on him and his righteousness; build on a plain, not on a rock or mountain, but on the sandy bottom of their own works, in a land of Shinar, or shaking, on a tottering foundation; their view is to get themselves a name, to be seen of men, and be applauded for their work sake, and that they might reach heaven, and get to it this way; but the issue of all is confusion and scattering abroad; for upon the foot of their own righteousness they can never enter into the kingdom of heaven.
w Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 4. sect. 13.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel. Behold what they gained by their foolish ambition to acquire a name! They hoped that an everlasting memorial of their origin would be engraven on the tower; God not only frustrates their vain expectation, but brands them with eternal disgrace, to render them execrable to all posterity, on account of the great mischief indicted on the human race, through their fault. They gain, indeed, a name, but not each as they would have chosen: thus does God opprobriously cast down the pride of those who usurp to themselves honors to which they have no title. Here also is refuted the error of those who deduce the origin of Babylon from Jupiter Belus. (331)
(331) בבל, ( Babel,) is derived from בלל, ( balel,) which signifies to confound. See Schindler’s Lexicon, sub voce בלל. The name Babel signifies, as Bishop Patrick says, “confusion; so frivolous is their conceit, who make it to have been called by this name, from Babylon, the son of Belus.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Therefore is the name of it called Babel.Babel is, in Aramaic, Bab-el, the gate of God, and in Assyrian, Bab-ili (Gen. 10:10). It is strange that any one should have derived the word from Bab-Bel, the gate of Bel, for there is no trace that the second b was ever doubled; moreover, Bel is for Baal; and though we Westerns omit the strong guttural, because we cannot pronounce it, the Orientals would preserve it. El is the regular Semitic word for Godin Assyrian, Ili; in Arabic, Ilah; in Syriac, Moho. So far from diminishing, this increases the force of the Scriptural derivation. Man calls his projected city Bab-el, the gatethat is, the courtof God; God calls it Babble; for in all languages indistinct and confused speech is represented by the action of the lips in producing the sound of b. The exact Hebrew word for this was balbalthe Greek verb, bambaino; the Latin, balbutio; and a man who stammered was called balbus. The town, then, keeps-its first name, but with a contemptuous meaning attached to it; just as Nabal (1Sa. 25:25) may really have had his name from the nabla, or harp, but from the day that his wife gave it a contemptuous meaning Nabal has signified only folly.
The Babylonian legends are in remarkable agreement with the Hebrew narrative. They represent the building of the tower as impious, and as a sort of Titanic attempt to scale the heavens. This means that the work was one of vast purpose; for there is something in the human mind which attaches the idea of impiety to all stupendous undertakings, and the popular feeling is always one of rejoicing at their failure. The gods therefore destroy at night what the builders had wrought by day; and finally, Bel, the father of the gods, confounds their languages. It is remarkable that the very word used here is blai (or perhaps blh), and thus the meaning of confusion would attach to the word equally in the Assyrian as in the Hebrew language (Chald. Gen., p. 166).
One question remains: Was the tower of Babel the temple of Bel destroyed by Xerxes, and which was situated in the centre of Babylon? or was it the tower of Borsippa, the site of which was in one of the suburbs, about two miles to the south? This tower was the observatory of the Chaldean astronomers, and its name, according to Oppert, means the tower of languages. We incline to the belief that this ruin, now called the Birs-Nimrud, was the original tower, and that the temple of Bel was a later construction, belonging to the palmy times of the Chaldean monarchy. An account of it will be found in Sayce, Chald. Gen., pp. 169, 170, and in Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., i. 12, 21, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Babel Confusion; , contracted from , derived from the verb , to pour together, to confound . (Gesenius . ) So the Septuagint . But the local tradition concerning the modern Babil, so generally identified with Babel, is, that it signifies the Gate of Il, that is, Gate of God . Perhaps this name was originally imposed by Nimrod in defiance, and after the judgment described in the text, it changed its meaning, since originally the tower was a symbol of human pride and subsequently of the divine wrath . This would be entirely natural, and both etymologies are equally admissible . What Nimrod meant as a monument of despotic power became a memorial of his discomfiture and shame. It would hardly seem possible that any relics of this ancient structure could now be discovered; but the researches of modern travelers render it highly probable that this edifice was afterwards completed by the kings of Babylon, who have left in the cuneiform inscriptions a record of their work. Oppert, the eminent orientalist, is confident that the modern Birs-Nimrud, at Borsippa, on the west bank of the Euphrates, about six miles from Hillah, is the ruin of this ancient tower, which, he thinks was finished by Nebuchadnezzar, whose name is found stamped upon its bricks, and upon the clay cylinders buried at its angles. It was a temple to Nebo, or Nabu, a deity of the Babylonian kings, whose names are often compounded from Nabu, as Nebuchadnezzar, which was in their orthography Nabu-kuduri-uzur.
Oppert, in his restoration of Babylon, locates this tower near the southwest corner, between the inner and outer walls. At present Birs-Nimrud is a huge pyramidal mound, 153 feet high, rising in solitary grandeur from a vast plain, appearing like a natural hill crowned with a ruin of solid brickwork which rises 37 feet from the summit. This tower-like ruin is rent about halfway down, and vitrified, as if by lightning. Immense masses of fine brickwork, which seem to have been molten, strew the mound, which square, the angles facing the four cardinal points seems to indicate an astronomical or astrological purpose. Aside from what seems to have been the vestibule, the main ruin is about 400 feet square at the base. It was, according to Oppert, the temple of Belus, described by Herodotus (i, 181) as a square pyramid in seven receding stages, coloured so as to represent the seven planetary spheres, each stage 25 feet in height, the whole resting on a vast substructure 75 feet in height, and a stadium, or over 600 feet, square.
Nebuchadnezzar named it the Temple of the Seven Lights of the Earth, that is, the sun, moon, and planets. Herodotus says that the basement stage was coloured black with bitumen, to give it the hue of Saturn, the most distant planet known to the ancients; the next stage orange, or raw sienna, the hue of Jupiter, which was the natural colour of the burnt brick; the third was colored bright red, by the use of half-burnt bricks of a peculiar red clay, the bloody hue of Mars; the fourth was cased with golden plates, to represent the sun; the fifth stage was built of pale yellow bricks, to represent Venus; the sixth was tinted blue, the colour of Mercury, by vitrifying the bricks to a slag; and the seventh was cased in silver, to give it the colour of the moon. (RAWLINSON, Her., App., book 3.)
Oppert agrees with the Talmudists in making Borsippa the true site of the tower of Babel, and explains the word as meaning, in Babylonian, Tower of Tongues. But the most remarkable thing of all is the cuneiform inscription here found, as by him deciphered. We extract from Oppert’s note, in Smith’s Dictionary, giving a few lines of the inscription to show its character.
“Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, shepherd of peoples, who attests the immutable affection of Merodach, the mighty ruler-exalting Nebo; the saviour, the wise man who lends his ears to the orders of the highest god, the lieutenant without reproach, the repairer of the Pyramid and the Tower, eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.
“We say: Merodach, the great master, has created me; he has imposed on me to reconstruct his building. Nebo, the guardian over the legions of the heaven and the earth, has charged my hands with the sceptre of justice.”
we have this account of the Borsippa edifice: “We say for the other, that is this edifice, the house of the Seven Lights of the Earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa. A former king built it, (they reckon 42 ages,) but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay, the bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. Merodach, the great lord, excited my mind to repair this building. I did not change the site, nor did I take away the foundation stone,” etc.
The allusion to the Babel catastrophe in the lines italicised is too plain to be mistaken. It is proper to say, in further explanation of this wonderful monument, that this famous King Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne of Babylon in B.C. 604, and built or rebuilt cities, temples, and all manner of public works, on a scale of magnificence unsurpassed in all history.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Babel means confusion. Hence is derived Babbler. Here was afterward founded Babylon the great seat of idolatry and persecution. This tower was then either rebuilt, or enlarged, and converted into the temple of Belus, which, according to history, was both higher and larger than St. Paul’s cathedral.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Ver. 9. The Lord did there confound the language. ] A sore cross and hindrance of interchange of commodities between nation and nation. This great labour also hath God laid hereby upon the sons of men, that a great part of our best time is spent about the shell (in learning of language) before we can come at the kernel of true wisdom, Scripture wisdom especially. Our Saviour’s epitaph, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as it sets forth Christ unto us to be; First, The most holy (for the Hebrew tongue is called the holy tongue); Secondly, The most wise (for in Greek is all human wisdom written); Thirdly, The most powerful (for the Latins were lords of the earth, and propagated their tongue among all the nations). So it signifies that God would have the dignity and study of these three tongues to be retained and maintained in the churches of Christ to the world’s end. Hebricians, saith Reuchlin, drink of the fountains; Grecians of the rivers; Latinists of the standing pools only. a There were that mocked at the multitude of tongues. Act 2:13 And the monks were mad almost at such Camilli literarii as chased out barbarism and brought in the learned languages. b But let us acknowledge it a singular gift of God, as for the gathering of the Church at first, Act 2:1-4 so still for the edifying of the body of Christ, “till we all come unto a perfect man,” Eph 4:13 to speak the language of Canaan, in the kingdom of heaven.
And from thence did the Lord scatter them.
a Hebraei bibunt fontes, Greci rivos, Latini paludes .
b Joh. Manlii. loc. com., p. 130.
c R. Menahem in Gen. xi.
d , . Plut.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Babel. Hebrew = confusion. Compare Job 5:12, another application of the Hebrew word.
scatter. Septuagint same word as in Act 8:1. Result of which was the conversion of the Ethiopian (Act 8:26) of HAM. Saul (Acts 9) of SHEM. Cornelius (Acts 10) of JAPHETH. Tongues confounded in judgment (Gen 11:9). Given in grace (Act 2:4). United in glory (Rev 7:9).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Babel
i.e. confusion. (See Scofield “Gen 11:1”) See Scofield “Isa 13:1”.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Babel: that is, Confusion, The tower of Babel, Herodotus informs us, was a furlong or 660 feet, in length and breadth; and, according to Strabo, it rose to the same altitude. It was of a pyramidical form, consisting of eight square towers, gradually decreasing in breadth, with a winding ascent on the outside, so very broad as to allow horses and carriages to pass each other, and even to turn. This magnificent structure is so completely destroyed that its very site is doubtful; and when supposed to be discovered, in all cases exhibiting a heap of rubbish. Gen 10:5, Gen 10:10, Gen 10:20, Gen 10:31, Isa 13:1 – Isa 14:32, Jer 50:1 – Jer 51:64, 1Co 14:23
the face: Gen 10:25, Gen 10:32, Act 17:26
Reciprocal: Gen 11:2 – Shinar Gen 11:4 – lest Gen 11:8 – Lord Deu 32:8 – divided 2Sa 18:18 – Absalom’s place 2Ki 20:12 – Babylon Isa 23:13 – the Assyrian Isa 24:10 – of confusion Eze 23:17 – Babylonians Jam 3:16 – there
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WHAT WILL THESE BABBLERS SAY?
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.
Gen 11:9
I. God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace.Yet once, in His wise compassion, He made confusion in order to prevent it; He destroyed peace, that in the end he might restore it.
The history of Babel is far more than a record of the defeated attempt of wicked men to accomplish an impossible folly. The building of that tower was the first great act of presumptuous rebellion against God subsequent to the Flood, and therefore it was meet that a measure of vengeance should fall upon it such as, while the world stood, should never perish from the memory of mankind. And, as God so often orders, the crime of these men became their punishment. Let us make a name, they cried, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. And this very thing it was which caused them to be scattered.
II. God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men, did, by that exercise of His power, the best thing that could be done to check and retard the rapid growth of evil, and to prepare the means by which man might be brought back to obedience. While there was but one tongue, men easily corrupted each other; when there were many, evil communications were greatly hindered. God marred the Babel-builders work, but it was in order to mar their wickedness; and meanwhile He had His own gracious designs for a remedy. It was on the day of Pentecost that that remedy was first applied. Those cloven tongues of fire which, on that day, rested on the heads of the apostles, undid, to as great an extent as will be permitted in this world, the confusion of Babel.
Rev. F. E. Paget.
Illustration
(1) Many things which we do are not wrong and sinful in themselves; only sinful because of the bad motives with which they are done. No sin in building a city, nor yet in building a lofty tower; all depends upon the character of the object or motive.
The Babel builders had several motives:
(a) To provide a place of abode. Innocent so far. The whole region had few large stones or rocks, hence they would require to make bricks, as Israelites did later in Egypt, and use slime for mortar. Must have done this largely; industry good. No blame yet.
(b) Ambition. Let us make a name. Probably when the city began to grow larger they began to grow proud, and said, This shall be the greatest and most famous city in the world. All others shall be as nothing to it; we will build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven i.e. be exceedingly loftyand all the world will talk about it; we shall be famous (compare Dan 4:30).
(c) That they might be united. Lest we be scattered; no harm in that if they wished for union for good purposes; but God had told them to replenish the earth. But they wished to keep together to make a name, merely to gratify vanity and ambition; a kind of ambition which could lead only to tyranny and godlessness.
(2) Gen 11:2 seems to say that Babel was built by men who had come into the land of Shinar, from the east, as if the line of migration taken by this race of men had proceeded from its primeval seat in Armenia first southwards and then westwards, a view which disagrees both with the history mentioned above and with the native inscriptions which have been lately deciphered. Accordingly, the phrase from the east has been interpreted to mean towards the east, as is the case in Gen 13:11, and is thus made to agree with the view that the men who built Babel entered the country from the south and west. But if the race of Cush came, as we have supposed, by sea, it is evident that their line of advance from the Persian Gulf was in a direction from south-east to north-west, i.e. one which, with no great violence of language, may be described as moving from the east.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
"Babel" sounds like the Hebrew word for "confuse" (balal), and it means "the gate of gods" in Akkadian.
". . . Gen 11:1-9, the tower of Babel story, is a satire on the claims of Babylon to be the center of civilization and its temple tower the gate of heaven (E[numa]E[lish] 6:50-80): Babel does not mean gate of God, but ’confusion’ and ’folly.’ Far from its temple’s top reaching up to heaven, it is so low that God has to descend from heaven just to see it! (Gen 11:4-9)." [Note: Wenham, Genesis 1-15, pp. xlviii-xlix.]
This was the original Babylon that forever after was the city most characterized by rebellion against God’s authority. It stands as a symbol of organized rebellion against God elsewhere in Scripture (e.g., Revelation 17, 18). [Note: See Everett H. Peterson, "Prehistory and the Tower of Babel," Creation Research Society Quarterly 19:2 (September 1982):87-90.]
"Man certainly did not expect his project to take such a turn. He did not anticipate that the name he wanted to make for himself would refer to a place of noncommunication." [Note: J. Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 18.]
The story of Babel is important for several reasons.
1. It explains the beginning of and reason for the various languages of mankind.
2. It probably explains the origin of the "races" within humankind.
"The separate language groups no longer could inter-marry freely with the rest of mankind. As in-breeding and lack of access to the larger pool of genes occurred, ethnic characteristics developed. Furthermore, each local environment tended to favor selection of certain traits, and eliminate the others. Ethnic characteristics, such as skin color, arose from loss of genetic variability, not from origin of new genes through mutation as suggested by evolution.
"The concept of race is an evolutionary idea . . . (Act 17:26). All humans possess the same color, just different amounts of it. We all descended from Noah and Adam." [Note: A plaque explaining an exhibit at the Institute for Creation Research Museum, Santee, Calif., which I observed on May 21, 1997.]
"The Bible doesn’t tell us what skin color our first parents had, but, from a design point of view, the ’middle [color]’ makes a great beginning. Starting with medium-skinned parents (AaBb), it would take only one generation to produce all the variation we see in human skin color today. In fact, this is the normal situation in India today. Some Indians are as dark as the darkest Africans, and some-perhaps a brother or sister in the same family-as light as the lightest Europeans. I once knew a family from India that included members with every major skin color you could see anywhere in the world.
"But now notice what happens if human groups were isolated after creation. If those with very dark skins (AABB) migrate into the same areas and/or marry only those with very dark skins, then all their children will have very dark skins. (AABB is the only possible combination of AB egg and sperms cells, which are the only types that can be produced by AABB parents.) Similarly, parents with very light skins (aabb) can have only very light-skinned children, since they don’t have any A or B genes to pass on. Even certain medium-skinned parents (AAbb or aaBB) can get ’locked-in’ to having only medium-skinned children, like the Orientals, Polynesians, and some of my ancestors, the Native Americans.
"Where people with different skin colors get together again (as they do in the West Indies, for example), you find the full range of variation again-nothing less, but nothing more either, than what we started with. Clearly, all this is variation within kind. . . .
"What happened as the descendants of medium-skinned parents produced a variety of descendants? Evolution? Not at all. Except for albinism (the mutational loss of skin color), the human gene pool is no bigger and no different now than the gene pool present at creation. As people multiplied, the genetic variability built right into the first created human beings came to visible expression. The darkest Nigerian and the lightest Norwegian, the tallest Watusi and the shortest Pygmy, the highest soprano and the lowest bass could have been present right from the beginning in two quite average-looking people. Great variation in size, color, form, function, etc., would also be present in the two created ancestors of all the other kinds (plants and animals) as well.
"Evolutionists assume that all life started from one or a few chemically evolved life forms with an extremely small gene pool. For evolutionists, enlargement of the gene pool by selection of random mutations is a slow, tedious process that burdens each type with a ’genetic load’ of harmful mutations and evolutionary leftovers. Creationists assume each created kind began with a large gene pool, designed to multiply and fill the earth with all its tremendous ecologic and geographic variety. (See Genesis, chapter 1.)" [Note: G. Parker, pp. 111, 113-14. See also Ham, et al., pp. 15-16, 131-55. See ibid., pp. 19, 197-207, for discussion of how animals could have reached remote parts of the earth.]
"Many thinkers labor under the illusion that evolution is an empirical science when in fact it is a philosophy." [Note: Norman L. Geisler, "Beware of Philosophy: A Warning to Biblical Scholars," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 42:1 (March 1999):7.]
3. The Babel story demonstrates the inclination of fallen man to rebel against God and to try to provide for his needs in his own way rather than by trusting and obeying God.
4. It illustrates that rebellion against God results in (a) broken fellowship with God and man, and (b) failure to realize God’s intention for man in his creation, namely, that he rule the earth effectively.
5. It provides the historical background for what follows in Genesis. Abraham came from this area.
"Irony is seen in the beginning and the ending of this passage. The group at Babel began as the whole earth (Gen 11:1), but now they were spread over the whole earth (Gen 11:9). By this time the lesson is clarified: God’s purpose will be accomplished in spite of the arrogance and defiance of man’s own purposes. He brings down the proud, but exalts the faithful.
"The significance of this little story is great. It explains to God’s people how the nations were scattered abroad. Yet the import goes much deeper. The fact that it was Babylon, the beginning of kingdoms under Nimrod from Cush, adds a rather ominous warning: Great nations cannot defy God and long survive. The new nation of Israel need only survey the many nations around her to perceive that God disperses and curses the rebellious, bringing utter confusion and antagonism among them. If Israel would obey and submit to God’s will, then she would be the source of blessing to the world.
"Unfortunately, Israel also raised her head in pride and refused to obey the Lord God. Thus she too was scattered across the face of the earth." [Note: Allen P. Ross, "The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9," Bibliotheca Sacra 138:550 (April-June 1981):133. See also Sailhamer, "Genesis," pp. 103-4.]