God has renewed his covenant with mankind. But evil still abounds ... and next shows itself on a plain in Shinar (Babylon.) In the history of the ancient Near East (ANE), there is a process of urbanization, of the development of cities. This chapter will first describe a city built on a plain in Babylon before describing a family that leaves another Mesopotamian city.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Humankind uses the modern technology (bricks!) to build a tall tower and "make a name" on the plains of Shinar (in Babylonia.) It is not clear if building a tower "that reaches the heavens" is an attempt to reach God in some way or is just a description for a tall tower, like the modern term "skyscrapers". The region of Babylon was home to some of the first ancient cities and this description of "a tower that reaches to the heavens" might describe the ancient ziggurats of Babylon.
"As men moved eastward" is not clear; it could be "from the east" or "in the east."
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with "making a name" for oneself. Abram will be encouraged to do exactly that in the next chapter. However, says Walton, ziggurats were built in ancient cities as a stairway for the gods, often with a temple near the base. As cities developed and people moved into urban areas, a ziggurat that "reached the heavens" would invite cities inhabitants to worship city gods.
Genesis 11:5-9, Babel
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The image of God is strange here -- God "comes down", as if He were indeed up in clouds, just above the buildings. This fits the cosmology of the ANE, in which God (or the gods) had a throne above the clouds, looking down on the disk of the earth.
God says, "Let us [prevent this]." Is the Hebrew plural?
This passage describes the frustrating and problematic diversity of languages. The passage parallels Genesis 10:4-5 where a dispersion of "maritime peoples", descendants of Javan, spread out with their own clans and their own languages.
The Hebrew name "Babel" (בָּבֶל) sounds like the Hebrew verb balal (בָּלַל) which means "to confuse." So in the Hebrew wordplay, there was balal at Babel.
This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
We now have the genealogy of Shem and move quickly, through a "vertical genealogy" to the story of Abram, the next (third) story of Genesis, leading to the third covenant of God with man.
This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Terah leaves Ur of the Chaldeans and travels west towards Canaan (Palestine.) Ur was most likely in the ancient nation of Sumer, in modern Iraq. Some identify the site of Ur with Nasiriyah, south-southeast of Baghdad. If so, the city had an ancient giant ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian moon god Nanna-Suen.
Nahor, Abram's brother, marries his niece Milcah. Enroute to Canaan, the family journey ends at a place presumably later named in memory of Abram's brother, Haran (father of Lot.)
We have reached the next hero, Abram. We follow him now for the next 14 chapters of Genesis. As with Adam and Noah, God will make a covenant with Abram.
Some Hebrew vocabulary
דָבָר
It occurs in the first verse of this chapter where it is translated "speech."
Some Random Thoughts
Although this chapter reads like a historical account, there are many places where it deviates from a typical (modern) view of history. The story of Babel predates some parts of chapter 10, since that chapter includes discussions of other languages. As in the genealogy of chapter 10, only select lines are given, and it is possible that individuals have been skipped. The extraordinary ages of the men begin to shrink, now often with ages of two centuries or so, instead of six, seven or eight, as in earlier genealogies (eg., chapter 5.)
It is possible that hidden in the background of this story is the ANE custom of building ziggurats to attract settlers to cities. This would have made cities a focal point of various pagan religions. It is possible that the people of Babel are dispersed because of their idolatry and that later Terah, in leaving Ur, left the paganism foistered by its Great Ziggurat.
First published Jan 13, 2023; updated Jan 13, 2026
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