Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole earth [had] one language and the same words.

2 And as people migrated from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3 And they said {to each other}, "Come, let us make bricks and {burn them thoroughly}." And they had brick for stone and they had tar for mortar.

4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top [reaches to] the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 Then Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that {humankind} was building.

6 And Yahweh said, "Behold, {they are one people with one language}, and {this is only the beginning of what they will do}. So now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand {each other's language}."

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

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh 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]. Or "And"
• [b]. Or "set out"
• [c]. Literally "each to his companion"
• [d]. Literally "burn to burning"
• [e]. Or "And"
• [f]. Literally "sons of Adam" or "sons of humankind"
• [g]. Literally "one people and one language to all of them"
• [h]. Literally "and this they begin to do"
• [i]. Or "And"
• [j]. Literally "each the language of his companion"