Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babylon

1 At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.^[a]

2 As people^[b] migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let us make oven-fired bricks." They had brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.

4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building.

6 The Lord said, "If, as one people all having the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7 Come, let Us go down there and confuse^[c] their language^[d] so that they will not understand one another's speech."^[e]

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 Therefore its name is called Babylon,^[f] for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 11

This chapter gives an account of the inhabitants of the earth before the confusion of tongues at Babel, of their speech and language, which was one and the same, and of the place where they dwelt, Ge 11:1,2 and of their design to build a city and tower, to make them a name and keep them together, which they put in execution, Ge 11:3,4 of the notice the Lord took of this affair, and of the method he took to put a stop to their designs, by confounding their speech, and dispersing them abroad upon the face of the earth, Ge 11:5-9 then follows a genealogy of Shem's posterity down to Abraham, Ge 11:10-26 and a particular relation is given of Terah, the father of Abraham, and his family, and of his going forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, in order to go into the land of Canaan, and of his death at Haran by the way, Ge 11:27-32.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit one lip and the same words
• [b] Lit they
• [c] Or confound
• [d] Lit lip
• [e] Lit understand each man the lip of his companion
• [f] The Hb word for confuse sounds like Babylon.