And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there aconfound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1–9)
וַיְהִי כָל הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים. וַיְהִי בְּנָסְעָם מִקֶּדֶם, וַיִּמְצְאוּ בִקְעָה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָר וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם. וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל רֵעֵהוּ: הָבָה נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים וְנִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה. וַתְּהִי לָהֶם הַלְּבֵנָה לְאָבֶן וְהַחֵמָר הָיָה לָהֶם לַחֹמֶר. וַיֹּאמְרוּ: הָבָה נִבְנֶה לָּנוּ עִיר וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם, וְנַעֲשֶׂה לָּנוּ שֵׁם – פֶּן נָפוּץ עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ. וַיֵּרֶד ה' לִרְאֹת אֶת הָעִיר וְאֶת הַמִּגְדָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּנוּ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם. וַיֹּאמֶר ה': הֵן עַם אֶחָד וְשָׂפָה אַחַת לְכֻלָּם וְזֶה הַחִלָּם לַעֲשׂוֹת, וְעַתָּה לֹא יִבָּצֵר מֵהֶם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יָזְמוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת. הָבָה נֵרְדָה וְנָבְלָה שָׁם שְׂפָתָם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִשְׁמְעוּ אִישׁ שְׂפַת רֵעֵהוּ. וַיָּפֶץ ה' אֹתָם מִשָּׁם עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ, וַיַּחְדְּלוּ לִבְנֹת הָעִיר. עַל כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ בָּבֶל: כִּי שָׁם בָּלַל ה' שְׂפַת כָּל הָאָרֶץ, וּמִשָּׁם הֱפִיצָם ה' עַל פְּנֵי כָּל הָאָרֶץ. (בראשית י"א, א-ט)
Why did humanity seek to build the city and tower, and what did the LORD fear if they continued?
The explanation seems explicit: humans sought to build a tower reaching heaven to avoid dispersion across the earth. Indeed, commentators including Rashbam and Rabbi Joseph Bekhor Shor saw rebellion against the divine command “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28): a desire to gather in one place and prevent the dispersion God intended.
But this interpretation is unsatisfactory. First, being in one place had already happened; it was not a future initiative, whereas “and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do” refers to something still unrealized. Second, avoiding dispersion is the absence of action, while Scripture speaks of an active undertaking: “which they purpose to do.” Furthermore, it is difficult to see why remaining together justified so extraordinary a divine intervention. The verses therefore seem to suggest a much more significant undertaking, or at least a far deeper aspiration.
To understand the story, we must compare it with another early narrative: the expulsion from Eden (Genesis 3:22–24).
After Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, the LORD said:
And the LORD God said: ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’ (Genesis 3:22)
הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ, לָדַעַת טוֹב וָרָע, וְעַתָּה, פֶּן יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ וְלָקַח גַּם מֵעֵץ הַחַיִּים, וְאָכַל וָחַי לְעֹלָם. (בראשית ג', כב)
These words express His concern that humanity might cross the boundary and change from a human creature into a divine one, like the other heavenly creatures – the sons of God and angels (see “Behold, the Man Is Become as One of Us”).
Striking parallels emerge immediately between Eden’s expulsion and Babel’s tower. In both, the LORD is concerned and acts: expelling humanity from Eden, and confusing human language and dispersing humanity at Babel. In both, the concern follows a first step already taken: eating from the tree of knowledge in Eden, beginning the city and tower at Babel. Both implicitly mention a divine council consulted by the LORD: “as one of us” in Eden, and “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language” at Babel. Both repeat the rare word pen (פֶּן), “lest.”
These parallels are not accidental; they point to a shared principle: divine concern about crossing the boundary between human and divine. In Eden, humanity had already acquired knowledge of good and evil, and the concern was that eating from the tree of life would confer eternal life and make it divine (see “Behold, the Man Is Become as One of Us”). Babel’s tower should likewise be understood as a human attempt to break that boundary through a tower whose top reaches heaven.
Indeed, Babylon, like all great Mesopotamian cities, had a temple containing a tall tower, a ziggurat, described in Babylonian writings as reaching heaven. The city’s name derived from Akkadian bāb-ili, “gate of the god,” and the tower was called the “house of the foundation of heaven and earth.” Scripture, however, mocks this meaning with a pointed linguistic interpretation: Babel (בבל), supposedly God’s gate, became where the LORD “confounded,” balal (בלל), the whole earth’s language (see Cassuto’s commentary).
The parallel also reveals an interesting linguistic reversal: pen, spoken by the LORD in the tree of life story, is here spoken by humanity: “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” A mirror image emerges: in Eden the LORD fears humanity becoming divine, while at Babel humanity fears remaining human. It seeks to escape its fate as an earthly creature meant to fill the earth and spread across it, and to enter the divine sphere.
Thus “let us make us a name” seems to mean far more than human reputation. Usually seeking a name or glory concerns an individual – a hero, king, or nation seeking distinction from others. Here, however, “the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.” Humanity speaks with one voice; no person or nation stands apart. Human fame makes no sense in such a reality, since no one remains to admire that name or compare themselves with it. The expression therefore means a desire to become eternal and divine. Compare: “Even unto them will I give in My house And within My walls a monument and a memorial Better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting memorial, That shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5). The Hebrew shem means “name,” rendered “memorial” by JPS here.
This idea fits the pre-flood story of the sons of God and daughters of men, which likewise mentions a “name”:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of nobles saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose. … and also after that, when the sons of nobles came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:1–2, 4)
וַיְהִי כִּי הֵחֵל הָאָדָם לָרֹב עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, וּבָנוֹת יֻלְּדוּ לָהֶם. וַיִּרְאוּ בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם כִּי טֹבֹת הֵנָּה, וַיִּקְחוּ לָהֶם נָשִׁים מִכֹּל אֲשֶׁר בָּחָרוּ ... וְגַם אַחֲרֵי כֵן, אֲשֶׁר יָבֹאוּ בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים אֶל בְּנוֹת הָאָדָם וְיָלְדוּ לָהֶם – הֵמָּה הַגִּבּוֹרִים אֲשֶׁר מֵעוֹלָם, אַנְשֵׁי הַשֵּׁם. (בראשית ו', א-ד)
Here, too, the divine and human spheres mix, producing “men of renown” – literally “men of the name,” those heroes who are the forbidden fruit of crossing heaven’s and earth’s boundary, after which the flood comes.
The LORD’s three great interventions early in Genesis thus seem to share a cause: preventing the mingling of divine and human spheres. Eden’s expulsion prevents humanity, already possessing knowledge, from gaining eternal life and becoming divine; the flood follows corruption resulting from the sons of God’s descent to human daughters; and at Babel the LORD confuses human language and disperses humanity after its unity enables it to seek ascent to heaven and divinity.
In each story the LORD restores order, re-establishing the boundary between heaven and earth, divine and human: “The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; But the earth hath He given to the children of men” (Psalms 115:16).
