Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.””
(Genesis 11:1-4)

From the beginning there had been one culture on the Earth. It was true before the Flood and it was true afterward. Everyone spoke the same language, having descended from the same ancestors. So they had no excuse for their choosing to go against God. They understood about God because they were told by their parents and grandparents before them. Noah was still alive at this point. He would have spoken up. Other godly people would have spoken up. There was no excuse for this rebellion. They UNDERSTOOD the truth, but they were wilfully going AGAINST the truth. And they were doing it as a united body because they all had the same language and could convince each other about anything they chose to. United people are strong (Ecclesiastes 4:12). They were choosing to find their identity in that unity and not in a relationship with God.

They were building a city with a tower in the middle. It was not necessarily a super tall tower. They weren’t building skyscrapers. The ‘sky’ they were reaching for was SPIRITUAL and not PHYSICAL. They weren’t trying to literally reach into Heaven and storm the gates. They were building a centre of idolatry. A place where they could transact between the supernatural and the physical. They had totally rejected God, but they still wanted more than the human experience could give them. They were seeking supernatural strength to help them stay where they were, stay in rebellion, and resist the command and the call of the Lord. They started with motion. They were travelling. They were spreading. BUT when they found a place they liked, they STOPPED. They were determined to stay. And they were choosing to reject God and interact with the supernatural (demons, evil spirits, etc) in order to get what they thought they needed to accomplish what THEY wanted.

In the beginning, humanity was issued a COMMAND by God. This was NOT a suggestion. It was the roadmap for humanity to follow in order to fulfill the will of God: “God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Genesis 1:28). After the Flood, God restated it: “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Humanity was meant to spread to ALL the Earth. To travel to all the reaches and recesses and steward it. ALL of it. Humanity was rejecting this command. Humanity was refusing to do what God wanted. Instead, they were doing what they thought would prevent God from making them spread. They were choosing to stay in one place, unite in their rebellion, and refuse to spread across the Earth.

Some scholars believe it was Nimrod who was the king that collected the people here. That this place was the capital of his empire and his desire to control was the impetus for humanity to gather in a centralized location.

Babel is also known as Babylon. The Hebrew word used in Genesis 10:10 ad Genesis 11:9 for this place/city is Babel (baw-bel’). The same word is used in Daniel 1:1 to tell us which city king Nebuchadnezzar came from and where the Jews were forcibly taken in captivity. The root word for Babel is ‘balal’ and means ‘confusion’.

The sage Ibn Ezra writes: ‘ONE LANGUAGE. When the word one in the feminine is in the absolute it is vocalized with a segol beneath the alef (echat). However, when it is in the construct it is vocalized with a pattach beneath the alef (achat). In my book on grammar I have explained why the dalet is missing in the feminine word for one. A logical reading of Scripture indicates that the dispersion took place one hundred years after the flood, and that Peleg, which means divided, was so named because at the time of his birth the earth was divided (Gen. 10:25). Peleg is similar to palga, the Aramaic word for half. Palge (rivers) in rivers of water (palge mayim) (Ps. 119:136) is identical. It refers to the branches into which the river divides. The names given to Ichabod (I Sam. 4:21) and Immanuel, who was the son of the prophet Isaiah (Is. 7:14), are similar. Nevertheless, the words of the Seder Olam are also correct, and we will rely upon them. If this is so, then Abraham was one of the builders of the tower of Babel. Do not be amazed at this, for Noah and Shem were also there. Indeed, Shem didn’t die till Jacob was over fifty. The meaning of safah echat is one language. It appears to me that the one language was Hebrew. Proof of this are the names Adam, Eve, Cain, Seth and Peleg.’

The sage Haamek Davar writes: ‘…One language – that is what caused the first sin. This is that they agreed to stop in one single place. And this is against the will of God that said to “fill the land and replenish it” – that is, to walk to all its places, since the land was created to be settled.’

The sage Kli Yakar writes: ‘And the whole earth was of one language and of common purpose. It appears that the entire incident of the Dispersion follows the principle that our Sages taught (Sanhedrin 71b): When the wicked gather together, it is bad for them and bad for the world; when the wicked are scattered, it is good for them and good for the world. For the righteous, the opposite is true. This is because when the wicked gather together, they devise evil plans against others. Additionally, they breed among themselves quarrels, conflicts, and hatred. This is the nature of the jealousies that exist between factions whose actions are not for the sake of Heaven but rather to make a name for themselves on earth. The root cause of this is that each of them has an external goal that divides their hearts from one another — for this one desires wealth and honor, that one excessive food, another excessive sexual pleasures, and yet another says “let us make a name for ourselves,” wanting to be elevated above others. From this, strife inevitably follows, both because they lack a unified purpose [for evil paths are many, while the good path is only one], and because each individual desires to achieve superiority and prominence over others. This trait is indeed prevalent among our people. Therefore, the dispersal of such groups is better than their gathering, as it is written, All workers of iniquity shall be scattered (Psalms 92:10). Nothing is better than creating space between those who cleave together [inappropriately], as it is written, Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongue, for I have seen violence and strife in the city (Psalms 55:10).’

The sage Or HaChaim writes: ‘When the Torah reports that the people spoke one language and דברים אחדים, were of one mind about all important issues, the meaning is that they literally congregated together without spreading out at all. To prevent becoming scattered they built a single city. They built the tower as a landmark so that if anyone of them strayed too far from home he would be able to orient himself by seeing the tower from a distance. The “name” the Torah speaks of is the “name” of the tower, i.e. its visibility from afar, its significance. It was this very reluctance to comply with G’d’s intention to populate various parts of the earth which annoyed G’d. Had they not been endowed with free choice, they never could have defied G’d’s plan for an evenly populated earth in this manner. G’d therefore had to resort to some stratagem to frustrate their plan without interfering with their basic freedom of choice. G’d achieved this by confusing their uniform language. Henceforth people who had a language in common would tend to congregate together, and as a result of a common language they would choose to live together. This could only be accomplished through their migrating from what used to be a central location, or what we are fond of calling “the cradle of civilisation.” G’d’s whole purpose was to fill the earth with people. The sin of wanting to remain together in one location was almost as serious as outright heresy, being מקצץ הנטיעות. While it is true that there are numerous mystical angles to this episode, and our sages elaborate on many of them, none of these explanations represent the plain meaning of the text.’

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘“a tower that reaches the sky.” The goal, to reach the sky (shamaim) and make a name (shem) for the builders, doubly offends divine prerogative: it is an incursion into God’s physical domain and also usurps God’s role in bestowing a name, which implies honor and legacy. The tower reflects and ridicules the Babylonian ziggurat, a massive “holy mountain” constructed of bricks that was the hallmark of Mesopotamian cities: it marked the meeting point of heaven and earth.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘And they found a plain. Unlike in modern Hebrew, the word bik’a does not mean a valley, but a plain, a low, level expanse of land. The plain was in the land of Shinar, which lies between the rivers of Babylonia, and is indeed a flat expanse suitable for the events described below; and they settled there.‘