The tower of Babel and the nations

After the flood, humanity began again from a single family. Genesis 10 and 11 tell how Noah’s descendants multiplied and formed peoples, languages and nations. In the middle of that account comes one of the shortest and most significant stories in the Bible: the tower of Babel. There we see human pride trying to reach heaven without God, and the divine response that scatters the peoples. But we also see God preparing the way for the call of a man through whom he will bless all nations.

The table of nations

Genesis 10 is known as “the table of nations”. It lists the descendants of Noah’s three sons. From Japheth come peoples who spread north and west, along the coasts and islands: among them Gomer, Magog, Madai (the Medes), Javan (the Greeks) and Tarshish. From Ham descend Cush, Mizraim (Egypt), Phut and Canaan. From Shem come Elam, Asshur (the Assyrians), Arphaxad, Lud and Aram, and from them, later, the Hebrews.

Jewish tradition counted seventy nations in this list, and the number seventy came to symbolise all humanity. Jesus would later send out seventy disciples to preach (Luke 10:1), a gesture many have seen as a sign that the Gospel is for all peoples. The table of nations reminds us that all human beings share a common origin and that God knows each people by name.

“These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.”

Genesis 10:32

Nimrod, the mighty hunter

Among Ham’s descendants appears Nimrod, who “began to be a mighty one in the earth” and was “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:8-9). He founded a kingdom that began in Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar, and spread to Assyria, where Nineveh was built. Nimrod represents the rise of the first empires and of concentrated political power. Many have associated him with the spirit behind the building of Babel.

One language

Genesis 11 opens: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” People journeyed from the east and found a plain in the land of Shinar, in Mesopotamia, and settled there. Then they said:

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:4

The project had three goals: to build a city, to raise a tower whose top would reach heaven, and to make a name for themselves so as not to be scattered. But God had commanded humanity to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). The tower expressed the desire to reach glory by human means, to concentrate power and to live without depending on God.

Brick instead of stone

The text mentions an interesting technical detail: they used brick for stone and slime (bitumen) for mortar. Stone was scarce in Mesopotamia, and builders used baked bricks and bitumen. That is how ziggurats were built, great stepped towers with a temple on top that served as “artificial mountains” to draw near to the gods. Babylon’s most famous ziggurat was called Etemenanki, meaning “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth”. Many scholars think the tower of Babel reflects this kind of structure.

“The Lord came down to see”

The account contains a beautiful irony. People wanted to build a tower reaching to heaven, but the text says: “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower” (Genesis 11:5). What was a gigantic work to humans was so small to God that he had to “come down” to see it. It is not that God needs to travel, but a way of showing the distance between God’s greatness and human pretension.

God observed that, united by one language and one purpose of rebellion, nothing would restrain them in their pride. So he confounded their language, so that they could not understand one another’s speech. Thus he scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

“Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

Genesis 11:9

Babel: confusion

The name Babel is a play on the Hebrew verb balal, meaning to confuse. For the Babylonians the name of their city meant “gate of god”, but the Bible links it with confusion. The city that wanted to be the gate of heaven became the symbol of human disorder. Throughout the Bible, Babylon will represent pride, idolatry and power opposed to God, right up to Revelation, which announces the fall of “Babylon the great” (Revelation 18).

The scattering: judgment and mercy

The confusion of languages was a judgment, but also a mercy. It prevented humanity from concentrating its rebellion in a single total empire and compelled it to fulfil the command to fill the earth. The diversity of languages and cultures, which began as a consequence of pride, will finally be redeemed by God, as we will see at the end of the series.

From Shem to Abraham

After the Babel account, Genesis 11:10-26 presents the genealogy from Shem to Terah: Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and Terah. According to tradition, the name “Hebrew” comes from Eber. In the days of Peleg “was the earth divided” (Genesis 10:25); his name means division, and many link it with the scattering of the peoples.

The list ends with Terah, who begat Abram, Nahor and Haran. Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai and his grandson Lot, and went out from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan; but they stopped at Haran, and there Terah died (Genesis 11:31-32). One important detail: “Sarai was barren; she had no child.” The chapter of the scattering ends with a family without offspring. Humanly speaking, there was no future. But that is exactly where God will begin his great promise.

Places in the story

Interesting facts

Lessons for our lives

Pride divides: trying to make a name for ourselves without God ends in confusion. God resists the proud: no human tower reaches heaven. Unity without God is dangerous: not every union is good if its purpose is rebellion. God knows every nation: no people is outside his sight. Where there seems to be no future, God begins something new: Sarai’s barrenness will be the stage for the promise.

On the road to Jesus

At Babel, people wanted to go up to heaven and God came down to scatter them. In Jesus Christ, God came down from heaven to gather them. At Babel languages were confused; at Pentecost the Holy Spirit enabled people from many nations to hear the wonderful works of God in their own language (Acts 2:6-11). At Babel they wanted to make a name for themselves; in Christ God gives us a new name, and he has “a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). And the scattering of Babel will end in the great multitude “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” worshipping the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

In the next episode we will meet the man with whom God began that great restoration: Abraham, the father of faith.

Prayer

Lord, deliver me from the pride of wanting to make a name for myself without you. Thank you that in Jesus Christ you came down to gather the scattered peoples. I pray for every nation and language on earth, that they may know your Gospel. Make your Church a people united by your Spirit. Amen.