And the whole earth had one language, and the same words.
Genesis 11 opens with the whole human race sharing one speech. The rest of the chapter tells how that shared tongue was lost. The verse raises two questions at once: what exactly was one, and why did God not leave it that way?
The verse makes two statements, not one. One writer gives his own literal rendering below. The Hebrew speaks of the "lip" and of the words, and older English versions blurred them together.
The King James Version fails to bring out the two thoughts. The speech and the words were both one. "And the whole earth was of one language (lip) and the words one" (or the same) (11:1). The Latin Vulgate reflects the Hebrew text literally. Here Moses is without doubt going back to the state of all mankind for a time after the great disaster of the flood. Until then, and after it, man had only one "lip" and the same words.
The previous chapter has already listed the nations, each with its own tongue. So this verse steps back in time rather than forward.
Only in Genesis 11 do we find the cause and the occasion. Chapter 10 does not follow the order of history. It comes in as a description set between Genesis 9 and 11. It mattered greatly that we should have certainty from God here. Men had no proper record and no reliable tradition. Their pride was quick to hide or forget a judgment from God that rebuked it.
The one language belonged to a world with no nations and no borders.
Before the flood no such distinctions existed. However large the population, the people were neither grouped together nor marked off from one another... God had not yet set up government, there was no division into nations, and there was no difference of language.
A common tongue is an advantage, and the men of Shinar read it as a measure of their own strength.
In that day men had one speech and one language. It led them to judge that they were strong, and that with a little skill and effort they might grow stronger still, even to independence from God. The materials at hand in the plain of Shinar looked very promising.
One writer reads the tower that followed not as a guard against another flood, but as a turning away from God.
They set to work to build a city and a tower, so that they might make a name for themselves. It was not to get out of reach of another flood, as some say, for that is the greatest nonsense possible. It was to be a great central temple to their own name. Babel was in principle apostasy, because it was a name for themselves instead of God. It is man uniting for himself.
A single world language sounds like pure gain. One writer answers that the wish and the judgment share a root.
Up to this time there was only one language. In the world today men wish they could have this advantage, but God is wiser than men. Men desire this for the very same reason that caused God to impose various languages upon them. They are infected by a pride that wants to unite independently of God, so as to have a great civilization.
The many languages now spoken seem to argue against one original speech. Yet the study of those languages has pointed the other way.
There are at least 900 languages on the earth, and this is a huge difficulty for those who argue from the many tongues we have now... These family groups differ sharply from each other. Yet study has shown clear proofs of a common relationship between them. Such proofs cannot be accidental. They point to one source. So scholars were driven to a conclusion that most of them neither expected nor wanted... that these languages point back to a time when only one and the same tongue was spoken.
The barrier raised at Shinar stood in the way of the first Christians and their message. God did not answer it by restoring one language.
In the time of the apostles, so many different languages on the earth were a serious obstacle. The apostles had been sent into all the world to preach the gospel, and this made the work slow and hard. But right at the start God showed these servants of the Lord that the difficulty was nothing against the power of the Spirit of God. In a moment He was able to give the disciples power to speak to men in their own language about the "wonderful works of God."
- One — the verse says two things are one: the lip and the words. The whole race spoke one language with the same vocabulary.
- Gift — that oneness belonged to a world with no nations, no borders and no separate tongues.
- Misused — men read that oneness as strength and spent it on a name for themselves. Writers call this apostasy in principle: man uniting without God.
- Scattered — our many languages came from that judgment. Yet they still carry proofs of one source that scholars did not set out to find.
- Reached — at Pentecost God did not undo the scattering. He crossed it, giving men the message of His works in their own speech.
And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there.
One verse moves the whole human race from the mountains of Ararat down to the plain where Babel would rise. Older translations say they "journeyed" and "dwelt" there, which raises two questions: why this place, and why stop at all?
The name marks a real place, and it keeps coming back in the Bible's story.
The ancient name of the plain lying in the south between the Euphrates and the Tigris. It was where Nimrod established his kingdom, and where the tower of Babel was built... Later it was called Chaldea, or Babylonia, and some of the captives from Judah were carried there.
Translators read the direction phrase in two ways. The same reference work notes both, and ties this Babel to the later city of Babylon.
The Hebrew is Babel, the same for Babel and Babylon. Genesis 11:2 speaks of Babel being built in a plain in the land of Shinar, which they reached by travelling from the east. The margin reads travelling "eastward," a reading preferred by many, and by the revisers of the English Bible. This direction agrees well with the location of Babylon on the river Euphrates.
The verse records movement, then a full stop. One writer asks what kind of movement it was.
Genesis 11 gives a vivid picture. There men "journeyed" indeed, but not as pilgrims — or only as pilgrims until they could find some smooth place to settle down in. "They journeyed" as colonists or immigrants on the lookout for land, from the rough hills where human life after the flood began. "From the east" means with their backs toward the blessed dawn. And "they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there."
Ararat was high ground; Shinar was flat. One writer sees more in that drop than a change of altitude.
The whole human family journeyed together. They left the mountainous regions and went down to the plain. This shows their moral descent. They turned away from God, even though they knew Him.
The flat ground also explains what they built next, and what they wanted from it.
Human history had started again under Noah in the mountainous region of Ararat. Now they found themselves on a flat, dull plain with no commanding heights. So they would build themselves a city around a tower of immense height, and make a name for themselves.
God's word to Noah's family had been to fill the earth. Staying put in one plain was the opposite of that.
By the terms of the divine command men were to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." To obey this, they had to scatter. How else could they fill "the earth"? But against this command of God the will of men rose up rebelliously. They would concentrate, and so consolidate their power and importance.
The flood had left them in awe, but not in obedience. They chose their ground with care.
But mankind, though awed by that judgment, had no care to do His will. Their mind was to keep together. And they picked their region well. Great rivers on either side and rich soil made it the ideal place for their purpose: to make themselves a universal republic without God... They were without excuse. They had the witness to God's eternal power and divinity. They also had the knowledge of God that Noah, a "preacher of righteousness," professed and testified, backed by the flood itself, still fresh in their memory.
Once named here, the place keeps its character through the rest of the Bible. In Zechariah's vision a basket called an ephah carries wickedness away to Shinar. One writer traces that address straight back to this verse.
They are seen carrying the ephah to the land of Shinar, the place and the home of open opposition to God (see Genesis 11:2). There this embodiment of wickedness would have a house of its own, and be set on her own base.
- Journey. They moved as settlers hunting for land, not as pilgrims. Their backs were toward the dawn.
- Descent. Coming down from Ararat's heights to a flat plain was a moral descent. The tower would supply the heights they had lost.
- Site. Two great rivers and rich soil made Shinar an excellent choice. The plan was to hold mankind together without God.
- Stop. God had said fill the earth. Obedience meant scattering, and "settled there" is where human will said no.
- Shadow. The plain named here becomes Babel, then Babylon — the Bible's standing address for open opposition to God.
And they said one to another, Come on, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
On the plain of Shinar, one people with one language agree on a method before they agree on a project. They will bake their own building material. The verse turns on a swap: brick where stone should be, tar where mortar should be. Commentators read that swap as the key to everything Babel became.
The choice of material followed the choice of location. One writer follows them down from the hills and notes why God records what they used.
They have left the mountains and come down to the easier life of the plain. There the same effort and endurance are not called for. Instead of trusting God, they follow what looks like their own short-term advantage. They realize there is strength in unity, but they do not seek unity as in subjection to God. On the plain, of course, they found no stone for building, so they made brick from the available clay. They "had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar." The Lord points to these substitutions because He builds with stone — with "living stones." Believers are His workmanship, not the work of men's hands, and He uses the mortar of the Holy Spirit to join them together. Of course brick does not last as stone does, because it is man-made.
The words are an invitation. A tower needs many hands, so the call passes from person to person.
Building a city and a tower with its top in the heavens is beyond the power of one man. Men can do it easily enough if they join together. So combining forces became the order of the day. "Come, let us make bricks," they said. And again, "Come, let us build." At last the Lord Himself said, "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language."
Brick appears in Scripture at two notable moments, and one writer sets them side by side.
The first time we have mention of bricks in Scripture is at Babel, Gen. 11:3. The next time they are mentioned is in Egypt, Ex. 1:14. Bricks speak of human material, man's imitation of stone, which is divine material. Both of these false systems, the religious and the political, use human material. Both have raised their heads to give glory to men. In Babel it is "a name"; in Egypt it is "treasure cities."
They "had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar." It looks good, and in the fine climate of those regions it lasts a long time. But it is human material, not divine: "brick" is man's manufacture, standing in for "stone," which is God's material. They cannot build great Babylon with the "living stones" of God's producing. These are man-made Christians, pressed together. The Spirit does not cement them for eternity. Human motives and influences hold them, the kind that sway crowds — and one day the fire of God will test them. So is great Babylon built.
The method has outlived the plain of Shinar. One writer applies the builders' mistake to the way people still try to reach heaven.
They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens." They never got there. They were wanting to get there by brick and mortar. How does God take us to heaven? He puts Christ there first, and then sends the Holy Spirit to link us with Him in heaven. Some people think today that they will get to heaven by "brick and mortar," that is, by hard work for salvation. Works, rites, and ceremonies take the place of Christ in their struggle to get to heaven. Christ is God's way to heaven. Faith, not works, can alone take you there.
The name of the place has two possible readings, and the builders got the one they never intended.
Men thought it was "Bab-il" but it turned out to be "Babel." They dreamed they were passing through the golden gate to godhood, in one form or another. It may have been by making themselves gods. In the end, though, they had to learn the hard way. Their bricks and bitumen were only a slimy gate to folly and confusion.
- Descent. They came down from the hills to the easy plain, and the lower ground decided the material — no stone there, only clay.
- Substitution. Brick is man's manufacture standing in for stone, God's material. Scripture first mentions brick here, and next in Egypt.
- Cement. The tar that holds bricks together pictures human motives, not the Spirit who joins living stones.
- Combination. No one man could raise that tower. So "Come, let us build" became the order of the day — until God used the same words to come down.
- Fire. The fire of God will one day test what men baked hard. The golden gate they imagined turned out to be confusion.
And they said, Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which [may reach] to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
After the flood, Noah's descendants settle on a plain and agree on one project: a city, a tower, and a name to hold them together. Their few words here show what men wanted then and still want — a centre of their own making, and a guard against scattering.
One writer traces the course behind the plan, and stops at one word the builders repeat:
The tower was not only a guard against scattering. It was tied to their purpose of making themselves "a name" — their fame would spread through the earth and dominate it. This brings us to the great feature that marked Babel from the start, and that is stamped on Babylon all through Scripture: the glorification of man. These early men after the flood had no thought of God as the proper end and object of their existence. So they put themselves there instead. It was "let us build OURSELVES a tower," and "let us make a name for OURSELVES." Their course is plain enough. First unbelief. Then rebellion against the feared judgment of God. Then they set themselves up as the great centre-piece of the picture, so that everything on earth might serve their pleasure and glory.
One writer weighs their purpose, and how literally to take the words about a top in the heavens:
They had one united purpose, independent of God — in fact, in defiance of His will that they should fill the earth. But what was their aim? Aim is what mainly shapes a man's acts and life. There is no need to think more was meant by their ambition than by the discouraging report of the spies in Deuteronomy 1:28: "the cities are great and fortified up to heaven."
Another writer ties the height to the second aim:
The tower was to be very high, "to heaven." They had no thought of actually reaching heaven. But it showed the lofty imagination of man's heart: the desire to make himself a name, and to form a gathering point that would stop them scattering.
The city was meant to hold them together. One writer sees that plan as a rival to God's own purpose of gathering:
As yet the whole earth had one language, and to this they would add another bond. A city and a tower should be their central point, and the place where they would reunite if any difference arose among them. It was Satan's work, his attempt to cancel the purpose of God, who will head up all things in Christ. His aim was to centre everything in himself. But Christ is to be the centre to whom all men shall turn — not the city and tower of Babel, but the city of Jerusalem and Zion, where He is.
Their plan needed numbers. One writer names the refusal underneath it:
The order is instructive and important. God's thought for man is weakness, dependence, subjection — and so, blessing. To bring this about, they are to be scattered abroad over the earth. But of all things, man's pride refuses to admit weakness, and his will resents subjection. He covets power and a name. "Union is strength" is his watchword.
The end of the story gives them the one thing they feared, and leaves the verdict in the place's name:
Their fear had been "lest we be scattered." One single act of Almighty power, and "from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth." The thing was so obvious that men themselves named the spot Babel, which means "confusion."
In the next chapter God calls a man named Abram and promises him what these builders tried to seize:
Note the LORD's word to Abram in Genesis 12:2, "I will make your name great." Compare it with men's ambitious work in chapter 11:4, "let us make a name for ourselves." Men's schemes — whether the Tower of Babel or any other — come to an end. The names of those who plan them and work them through perish with the world they belong to. But the man who identifies himself with what is God's gets a name that will last for ever. Far better to let God make our name great than to seek anything for ourselves in a scene like this.
- Motive — The builders had no thought of God as the aim of their existence, so they put themselves there instead: build "ourselves" a city, make a name for "ourselves."
- Method — Pride refuses weakness and dependence, so it reaches for numbers. "Union is strength" is man's watchword.
- Meaning — The height showed the lofty imagination of the heart. The city was to be a rallying-point, holding them together apart from God.
- Judgment — They built to prevent scattering, and scattering is what fell on them. The place still carries the name "confusion."
- Name — Man's schemes end, and his name perishes with the world it belongs to; the man who identifies himself with what is God's gets a name that lasts for ever.
And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built.
Two verses earlier, men in the land of Shinar are building a city and a tower to reach heaven. Here the movement reverses. The God they left out of their plans comes down to look at what they made. That raises an obvious question. Why would God, who sees everything, need to come down and look?
The words do not mean God's sight is limited. They show how near He brings Himself to what people do.
They thought their building would keep them from being scattered over the earth. But they defeated their own aim, because this is why God scattered them. He "came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built" (v.5). Of course He could see this without coming down. But His coming down shows how real His interest is in men's affairs. It hints that He comes close enough to know everything their work involves.
The verse does not simply say God. It uses the name behind "the LORD" — Jehovah. That name fits what is happening.
He who is not the Creator only but the moral governor, Jehovah, came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. No designation suited the occasion but this. For He is the One who concerned Himself with all who stood in moral relation with Him. He had breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of their first father. By telling the story this way, He would also impress His people with His calm and full judicial survey of men's ways. Yet He knew it all from the beginning (ver. 5). God was in none of their thoughts.
If God already knows, He records the descent for our sake. It teaches us how to judge.
He knew perfectly well without calling after him in the garden of Eden; but it is for us that He reveals it in this way... when men unite to build a city and a tower in the land of Shinar, or when the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, He comes down to see whether things are as bad as they seem. All things are naked and open to His eyes. But God would teach us a serious lesson: never rush to judge evil. He knows well how hasty we often are... He loves patience in judgment.
Their tower was meant to reach heaven, yet heaven still had to come down to it. That reversal shows a principle.
It is characteristic of man in his pride and rebellion to aim at building a tower which will reach to heaven. In this an important principle may find illustration. Man's blessing is not found through his efforts to reach up to God, but through God coming down to him.
The builders armed themselves against one danger — scattering. The judgment that came was nothing like it.
So men began once more to lift themselves up in mind and achievement, and the great JEHOVAH "came down." He saw their works and their projects. He recognised their unity expressed in the oneness of their language. He foresaw what this oneness could lead to and where it would end. So judgment came from Him — a judgment quite different from the one they expected and were arming themselves against. They never saw it coming. He simply confused their language, so that they no longer understood one another's speech. At once their union, their organisation, their central power and their building project collapsed.
God had come down before Babel. Each earlier visit had its limits.
He came down and visited Adam, but there was great reserve. Innocence was short-lived, and sin soon ended that state for ever. He visited Abraham and talked with him; that was brief as well. He visited Israel, coming down on the fiery mountain; but darkness and distance marked that period. What I had chiefly in mind, though, was the time when man set up that first great tower of independence in this world — the tower of Babel.
- Down, not blind. The descent does not give God information. It shows how close He comes to what people build.
- Down as Judge. The name Jehovah marks Him as moral governor. He makes a calm, full survey of ways He already knew.
- Down in patience. He looks before He acts — a rebuke to our habit of rushing to condemn.
- Down against pride. A tower aimed at heaven still needed heaven to stoop. Blessing never comes by climbing up, only by God coming down.
- Down in judgment. They braced against scattering. One confused language scattered them anyway, and the work stopped.
And Jehovah said, Behold, the people is one, and have all one language; and this have they begun to do. And now will they be hindered in nothing that they meditate doing.
After the flood, the whole earth spoke one language. The people set out to build a city and a tower, and to make a name for themselves. Verse 6 is God's own assessment of that project — a verdict not on how weak united humanity is, but on how strong.
Before God speaks His verdict, He inspects. One writer notes which name of God the moment calls for, and what was missing from the builders' plans.
Jehovah is not only the Creator but the moral governor. He came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. No other name suited the occasion... By telling it this way He also impresses His people with His calm, full, judicial survey of men's ways — though He knew it all from the beginning. God was in none of their thoughts. They never thought of a temple to His honour being a centre for themselves. They built no altar to Jehovah, as Noah did on coming out of the ark. They did not call on His name, nor did they seek His will.
God's words here are a strange kind of compliment. They measure what a fallen race can still do.
This is remarkable testimony to what united man can do. Man is fallen, and sin has damaged some of his faculties. Yet leave him alone, and nothing will hold him back. Even now one shared purpose binds men together, despite their quarrels. Under one master mind, with one aim before them, they stand together against all opposition: union makes strong. Why prevent this?... Because sin was there, and the increase of power would be the increase of sin.
The energy God recognises here has a name. One writer sets out what men expect it to give them.
Man does not want anyone to rule him. He joins with others to make himself completely independent of God. Joined with others, he thinks he can do anything. "Union," he says, "is strength." And this is true until God intervenes. Men join together to make a name for themselves on earth. That is the spirit of association... God recognises (Gen. 11:6) the power of the principle of association; but this is the proper principle of Babylon.
Commentators differ over whether the sin at Babel was false worship. One writer reads God's own words here and finds no trace of idols.
The language of Jehovah confirms all this as the truth; not a word here points to strange gods or idols... It was a godless joining together, not false worship... They had not paid attention to Him but had forgotten Him. Their own union would be their strength, and a name of renown on earth.
God's estimate has proved true. One writer saw it in his own lifetime.
The ancients entertained the imagination of men flying like birds. A century ago people wrote novels about men travelling under the sea. The imagination was there, but would it ever become fact? It did not look like it! Yet the Lord had said that nothing they imagined doing would be held back from them. We have reached the twentieth century after Christ, and look — these things are done.
The same writer asks what one language would have cost the world.
Without the confusion of language the atom bomb would have arrived far earlier in history. Mankind would have all but destroyed itself long ago. The Governor of the nations acted in judgment at Babel. We can thank Him that He did, because His judgment held mercy inside it.
Their stated fear was being scattered. The remedy God chose met that fear head-on, and cost nothing but a change of speech.
Their purpose had been centralization, so that they would not be scattered. The Divine act produced in the simplest possible way the very thing they aimed at preventing.
The scattering was never the last word. Centuries later, on the day of Pentecost, the very marks of that judgment were turned into the means of blessing.
Even the day of grace met the sin and rose above the judgment, in God's wise way. He did not cancel the judgment or wipe out the sin. Instead He gave the apostles power at Pentecost to speak to men in the languages they were born into — to their amazement. So He proclaimed His grace among the evidences of His judgment, using the tokens of judgment themselves as channels of His grace. Go where we may, the differences of languages meet us, and proclaim God's rebuke of man's pride and ambition.
- Inspection. God comes down and calmly surveys the building site. He finds Himself absent from every plan: no altar, no prayer, no asking of His will.
- Estimate. His verdict is not that men are weak. United, they are almost unstoppable. Strength was never the problem — its direction was.
- Principle. God names the spirit of association here: "union is strength." Men join forces to make a name and stay independent of Him.
- Restraint. Confused speech put a brake on that power. Without that brake, one writer argues, man would have destroyed himself long ago. The judgment carried mercy inside it.
- Reversal. At Pentecost God answered that judgment. He did not cancel it. He used its own tokens — many languages — as channels of His grace.
Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
God speaks here in the plural. He decides on a punishment that still shapes the map of the world. The words are an answer, almost an echo: the builders had said "let us," and now God says it back to them.
The verse opens with a call to get started. Older translations put it as "Go to." The same call comes from both sides of the story — first from the builders, then from God.
"Go to," they said, "let us build." "Go to" has a strange old-world sound in our ears. The expression we should use today is "Come on"... Until the Lord Himself finally said, "Come on, let us go down and there confuse their language."
That plural "us" on God's lips is more than a figure of speech.
It is well known that we can go back with the light of New Testament revelation and see certain hints of a Trinity in the Godhead in the Old Testament. They come out in passages such as Genesis 3:22, Genesis 11:7, Numbers 6:23-26, and perhaps also Isaiah 6:3.
The problem was not that men were capable. It was what capability becomes when sin holds the controls.
Jehovah came down to see what man was doing, and His verdict on what men can do is surprising. This is remarkable testimony as to what united man can do. Man is fallen, and sin has damaged some of his powers. Yet if no one stops him, nothing he plans will be out of reach... Why prevent this? Why does God say, "Let us go down, and there confuse their language"? Because sin was there, and the increase of power would be the increase of sin.
God's own words here name the offence:
The language of Jehovah confirms all this as the truth; not a word here points to strange gods or idols... It was a godless union, not false worship... They had not heeded Him but forgotten Him. Their own union would be their strength, and a name of renown on earth.
They were ready for one kind of trouble. God struck at something they never thought to defend.
He recognised their unity expressed in the oneness of their language. He foresaw what this oneness could lead to and where it would end. So judgment came from Him — a judgment nothing like the one they had expected and were arming themselves against. It took them by surprise. He simply confused their language, so that they did not understand one another's speech. At once their union, their organisation, their central control and their building project collapsed.
The division that followed was not random. The new languages ran along family lines, so households stayed whole.
This is how mankind spread everywhere after the flood. It happened after some time had passed, not willingly, but under the pressure of divine power. It confused them so thoroughly and so quickly that they might well dread the outcome of any further effort to disobey. So nationalities began, each with its own tongue, in their lands, but as mercy ruled, according to their families. There was no confusion in Jehovah's ordering.
The restraint has held ever since, and it has held evil back with it.
We live in an age that is unfolding the implications of Genesis 11:6 before our eyes. Without the confusion of language, the atom bomb would have arrived far earlier in the world's history. Mankind would have very nearly destroyed itself long ago. The Governor of the nations acted in judgment at Babel, and we can thank Him that He did so, since His judgment held mercy inside it.
Centuries later, at Pentecost, God used many languages to say one thing. The reversal turns on a name.
The reversals of the curse of Babel stand out most of all, because of their gracious character... At Babel the builders all spoke the same language, but they were all fatally in the wrong, so God confused their speech. At Pentecost every man heard the wonderful works of God in his own language, and they "continued praising God." "Let us make a name for ourselves" produced the confusion and scattering of Babel. The Pentecostal secret was another name: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." That name removed the language barrier and revealed the power that gathers.
- Pride — They wanted a name and a centre of their own. Their union was their strength, and God was left out. They did not defy Him with idols; they forgot Him.
- Descent — God answers their "let us" with His own. Read in the light of later revelation, that plural hints at more than one Person in the Godhead.
- Confusion — The judgment landed where they had set no guard. One stroke at their speech, and the whole project collapsed.
- Mercy — Families kept their own language, so households stayed whole. The brake God put on united mankind has slowed the spread of evil ever since.
- A better Name — "Let us make a name for ourselves" scattered them. One other Name gathers them: at Pentecost every man heard the wonderful works of God in his own language.
And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth. And they left off building the city.
Genesis 11 closes the story of the ancient world in one short sentence. God acts, and human building stops. The builders had banded together so that nothing would ever spread them out. The very thing they feared is what came on them, and their half-built city stood abandoned.
The builders had one aim: to keep from scattering. One act of God undid that plan, and the rest followed on its own.
Mankind inevitably scattered into language groups, and the building of Babel stopped. Each person had to go with those who spoke as he did. Each language group separated itself from the others, who became foreigners to it. So this one act of God, the fruit of His wisdom and power, brought the plans of men to nothing. Their aim had been to hold together in one place, so that they would never scatter. The divine act produced, in the simplest possible way, the very thing they aimed at preventing.
The judgment came from a direction they had never prepared for.
So men began once more to lift themselves up in mind and achievement, and the great Jehovah "came down." He saw their works and their projects. He recognised their unity expressed in the oneness of their language. He foresaw what this oneness could lead to, and how it would end. Then judgment came from Him. It was a judgment quite unlike the one they had expected and were arming themselves against. It caught them unawares.
The unfinished city is the picture the verse leaves us with.
They left off building their city. When God steps in, man's work always comes to a sudden stop. It will always be so.
The scattering was judgment, but it cost no one his life.
Meanwhile Jehovah would bring their pride to nothing. He would scatter them by a means as simple as it was effective. There He would confuse their language, so that they could not understand one another's speech. Then they would have to scatter, just as they feared. But what mercy there was in their scattering! They did not lose a hair of their heads.
There is a second mercy here. A race with nothing to hold it back is dangerous.
It was mercy to confuse their language. God would still, by His restraining power, keep the surge of evil in check. If nothing restrained him, what would man be? What has he shown himself to be, even with many restraints on him? But if there was mercy in restraining evil, there was also judgment in confusing their language. Their thinking and their actions were rebellion against God. The confusion of tongues shows both mercy and judgment. From then on, divisions, hatred, and war mark the history of man.
Nations and languages begin here. They did not drift apart on their own.
It was Jehovah who confused their language. Men would no longer be one. From then on they lived divided into nations. Yet mercy took care that the new languages did not break up their families. It was Jehovah's doing. It was not nature, not circumstances, not development. It was an act of divine power, plainly a judgment, and it lasted.
Scattering was not God's last word. Soon after, He called one man. That call ran the opposite way from everything Babel stood for.
Just when men were aiming at unity, God brought in scattering. Soon after, He called Abraham. Men were saying "Come on!" God said to Abraham, "Get out!" They were urging people to join together; God commanded separation, and Abraham obeyed. When men had their city and their tower, Abraham had a tent and an altar. In their cities men look for what is settled and permanent. A tent belongs to a life that is only passing through. Men build a tower to give security and defence, as far as men can. But an altar speaks of God, and of keeping contact with Him.
Later, God used those same divided languages to carry the news of salvation.
In Genesis 11 God sent divided tongues in judgment. In Acts 2 He sent divided tongues in grace. The blessed God of all grace would have each one hear of full salvation, and hear it in the very language in which, as a baby, he first heard a mother's love — his own native language. God had once given divided tongues to scatter in judgment. Now He gave them again to gather in grace — not now around an earthly tower, but around a heavenly Christ.
- Scattered. What men worked hardest to prevent is what God gave them. Their defence became their sentence.
- Halted. The unfinished city stands as the sign that human projects stop the moment God steps in.
- Spared. The scattering carried mercy: no one died, families stayed together, and God held human evil in check.
- Divided. Nations and languages date from this act of God, not from natural development.
- Gathered. God answered the scattering by calling one man out to a tent and an altar. In Acts 2 He sent divided tongues again — this time to gather.
Therefore was its name called Babel; because Jehovah there confounded the language of the whole earth. And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11 ends with a name. People set out to make a name for themselves, and God gave the place a name instead. The verse tells us what happened to human speech, and why people are spread across the earth.
Genesis uses this name twice, and both times it points back to one place and one event.
In Genesis 10:10 it is the name of the first place mentioned as the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom. In Genesis 11:9 the tower and city are called "Babel." God confused the language of man there, so that they did not understand one another. The tower was to be very high, "to the heavens." They had no thought of really reaching heaven. But it showed the proud ambition of man's heart. They wanted to make a name for themselves, and to form a gathering point that would hold them together. God would not allow this, for man no sooner has power than he begins to abuse it. He could not let them, as one family, exalt their own name, for the Lord's name alone is to be exalted.
Some see a deliberate play on the sound of the name.
Those who have studied the subject give the name a second meaning: "Bab-il," which means "gate of God." This looks like one of those plays on words that are common in Scripture. Their purpose is to catch the reader's attention. Men thought it was "Bab-il," but it turned out to be "Babel." They dreamed they were walking through a golden gate and becoming divine in some way. In the end, they had to learn the hard way that their bricks and tar were only a muddy gate to folly and confusion.
The builders wanted one thing: to stay together in one place. God's judgment struck that aim.
The inevitable result was that mankind scattered into language groups, and the building of Babel stopped. Each person had to go with those who spoke as he did. Each language group separated from the others. Those others were now foreigners to it, and at first no one could hold an intelligent conversation with them. So by this one act of God, the fruit of His wisdom and power, the plans of men came to nothing. Their purpose had been to gather in one centre and never scatter. The divine act produced, in the simplest possible way, the very thing they were trying to prevent.
Commentators see more than a penalty here. A united human race would have had no brake on its evil.
It was mercy to confuse their language. God would still, by His restraining power, keep the surge of evil in check. If nothing restrained man at all, what would he be? What has he shown himself to be, despite many restraints?… But if there was mercy in restraining evil, there was also judgment in confusing their language. Their thought and their action were rebellion against God. The confusion of tongues shows both mercy and judgment. They said, "lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." What they feared comes upon them — they are scattered.
God's mercy also shows in the way He scattered them. Nobody ended up alone.
Yet it was a dealing tempered with wisdom and mercy, for each language was spoken by the same clan. They did not part from their families. That could easily have happened, if God had willed it. Instead they spread abroad by their family lines, and national history began this way in their various lands.
The name does not stay in Genesis. It comes to describe a whole line of human effort.
Babylon means confusion. At Babel man made his first organised effort to act apart from God, and so God confused it. It afterwards became the head of the Gentile powers that laid Jerusalem waste. So it often stands for them all… It began in independence of God. It continued as the oppressor of God's people. It fell while using the vessels of God's temple to honour its own idols.
The divided tongues of Babel are not God's last word on human speech. In Acts 2 God used the same means the opposite way.
In Genesis 11 divided tongues were sent in judgment. In Acts 2 divided tongues were sent in grace. The blessed God of all grace would have each one hear of full salvation. He would have him hear it in the very words in which his infant ears had listened to the earliest whispers of a mother's love — "in his own tongue in which he was born"… Divided tongues had once been given to scatter in judgment. Now they were given again to gather in grace — not around an earthly tower, but around a heavenly Christ; not for the exaltation of man, but for the glory of God.
- Motive. The tower was a gathering point, built to make a name for man. God would not let one family exalt its own name.
- Method. God did not destroy the builders. He confused their speech, and their plans collapsed at once.
- Mercy. Holding back a united human race kept evil in check. Even so, the scattering left families and clans together.
- Memory. The name Babel stuck. Its character — independence from God, ending in confusion — runs on into Babylon.
- Miracle. In Acts 2 divided tongues came back. This time they did not scatter people from a tower. They gathered them to Christ.