From the Printed Lesson

Babylon was the place where the people decided to build a tower to go into heaven. Their purpose was based on pride and rebellion against God. They had a desire to dominate the world apart from God using what they thought was their own organizational skills, unity, power, and the ability to make great accomplishments. God destroyed their efforts by multiplying languages so they could no longer communicate with one another.

The Command Given After the Flood

The builders did not appear without a history. They were descendants of Noah’s post-Flood family. Before Genesis describes the city and tower, God had already given Noah and his sons a clear command.

“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Genesis 9:1 KJV

The command involved more than having children. As Noah’s descendants multiplied, they were to spread out and fill the earth. Genesis 10 traces the families and nations that came through Noah’s sons. Genesis 11 then gives the account of the city and tower.

The Complete Account of Babel

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 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.

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 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 11:1-9 King James Version

Going Back Through the Account

Genesis 11 says that Noah’s descendants shared one language. Some of them journeyed east, found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Shinar was the larger region. The city and tower were built on a plain within that region.

A plain is a broad area of mostly flat land with few hills or mountains. It offered level ground, fertile soil, access to water and room for a growing population. From a practical standpoint, it was an excellent place to settle. Genesis 11:2 then adds the revealing words, ‘and they dwelt there.’ They did not merely stop to rest. They settled there.

Their Bricks Were Not the Sin

The people did not have the building stone commonly used elsewhere, but they were resourceful. They formed bricks from clay, hardened them by fire and used bitumen as mortar. Scripture does not condemn their intelligence, craftsmanship or ability to work together. The problem was not that they could build. The problem was what they intended to accomplish through their building.

Three Motives Revealed

First, they said, ‘Let us build us a city and a tower.’ Their work centered upon what they wanted to establish for themselves.

Second, they said, ‘Let us make us a name.’ They wanted greatness, identity and lasting recognition apart from God.

Third, they said, ‘Lest we be scattered abroad.’ They intended to prevent the very thing God had commanded Noah’s family to do.

Remember: After the Flood, God had commanded them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth’ (Genesis 9:1, KJV).

God told them to multiply and fill the earth. They multiplied, gathered their strength in one place and began constructing a city designed to keep themselves from being scattered. Their unity was real. Their ingenuity was remarkable. Their purpose was disobedient.

The City Revealed Their Intention

The tower was the visible structure, but the heart of the rebellion was their determination to secure their own future. The city that would come to be called Babel was built not because they lacked a place to live, but because they wanted to make a name for themselves. They feared being scattered more than they feared disobeying God.

They were not trying to reach God nearly as much as they were trying to avoid going where God had sent them.

The Lord Came Down

Genesis 11:5 contains a wonderful irony. The people intended to build a tower whose top would reach heaven, yet the Lord ‘came down’ to see it. At this point in the account, the city had not yet been named Babel. God came down to see the city and tower that would later receive that name.

The words ‘the LORD came down’ do not mean that God was unaware of their work or needed to travel there to investigate. The language describes His deliberate examination and intervention. It also reveals how small their great achievement was before Him.

The City Was Named Babel

God confused their language, scattered them across the earth and brought construction of the city to a halt. They built to prevent their scattering. God scattered them anyway.

Only after this does Genesis announce the city’s name. Shinar was not renamed Babel. Shinar was the land in which they settled. Babel was the name given to the city where God confused their language. In Hebrew, Babel and Babylon are the same name, Bavel. Genesis connects that name with the confusion of their language.

The tower was therefore built on a plain in the land of Shinar, within the city that came to be called Babel, or Babylon.

An Additional Biblical Connection

Genesis 10:8-10 associates Nimrod, a descendant of Noah through Ham and Cush, with the beginning of a kingdom that included Babel in the land of Shinar. Genesis 11 does not name Nimrod as the builder of the tower. We can recognize the connection without stating as fact something the passage does not explicitly say.

Across the Generations

The Bible does not provide an exact date for the building of the city and tower. The events occurred after the Flood, but Scripture does not tell us precisely how many years passed between Babel and Isaiah.

Babylon’s story spans many generations. Historical records mention Babylon as a small settlement in the late third millennium B.C. It later grew in power and became a major city under Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C. By the time Isaiah ministered in the eighth century B.C., Babylon already had centuries of history behind it.

Isaiah was not introducing a city that had suddenly appeared. He was speaking about an ancient center of human ambition, political power and false worship whose biblical roots extended back to Genesis.

Recap

This account is about far more than a tower.

God commanded Noah’s descendants to multiply and fill the earth. They multiplied, but some gathered their strength in one place and began building a city intended to keep themselves from being scattered.

Their unity was real. Their ingenuity was remarkable. Their purpose was disobedient.

The tower attracts our attention because of its height, but the city reveals their intention. They built permanence around their resistance to God. Their city became an answer to His command: ‘We are staying here.’

Their unity could not overrule God’s purpose. Their bricks could not secure their future. Their tower could not carry their name into heaven.

God told them to fill the earth, and the earth was filled, not because they willingly scattered, but because God scattered them.

The tower remained unfinished, but the lesson was complete.