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.