The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues (x. 18-27)

The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues (x. 18-27; cf. Gen. xi. 1-9).

18. And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was Lômnâ the daughter of Sînâ’ar, and she bare him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Reu; ² for he said: "Behold the children of men have become evil ³ through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar." 19. For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shinar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, "Go to, let us ascend thereby into heaven." ⁴ 20. And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay ⁵ with which they cemented them together was asphalt which cometh out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. 21. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its

1645-1688 A.M.

p. 82

breadth was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades). 22. And the Lord our God said unto us: "Behold, they are one people, and (this) they begin to do, and now nothing will be withholden from them. Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech, ¹ and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer abide with them till the day of judgment." 23. And the Lord descended, and we descended with Him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built. 24. And He confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower. 25. For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the Lord did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from thence they were dispersed ² into their cities, each according to his language and his nation. ³ 26. And the Lord sent a mighty wind ⁴ against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they called its name

1688 A.M.

"Overthrow." ⁵ 27. In the fourth week in the first year in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they dispersed from the land of Shinar.

Footnotes

81:1 Cf. iv. 24.

81:2 Cf. Gen. xi. 18.

81:3 There is a play on the name Reu in Hebrew here (re‘û . . . rā‘û).

81:4 Cf. Gen. xi. 4.

81:5 Cf. Gen. xi. 3.

82:1 Cf. Gen. xi. 6 f.

82:2 Cf. Gen. xi. 9.

82:3 According to Jewish tradition seventy nations (under seventy patron angels) were thus created.

82:4 An old tradition; cf. Sibyll. Oracles iii. 98-103; Josephus, Ant. i. 4, 3.

82:5 A play on the preceding verb (" overthrew "). But its real name was Babel.