Genesis 11:9

Therefore is the name of it called Babel,.... The name of the city mentioned, and the tower also, which signifies "confusion", as the Septuagint version renders it; and so Josephus (w) says the

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 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.Ver. 9. The Lord did there confound the language.] A sore cross and hindrance of interchange of commodities between nation and nation. This great labour also hath God laid hereby upon the sons of men, that a great part of our best time is spent about the shell (in learning of language) before we can come at the kernel of true wisdom, Scripture wisdom especially. Our Saviour’ s epitaph, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as it sets forth Christ unto us to be; First, The most holy (for the Hebrew tongue is called the holy tongue); Secondly, The most wise (for in Greek is all human wisdom written); Thirdly, The most powerful (for the Latins were lords of the earth, and propagated their tongue among all the nations). So it signifies that God would have the dignity and study of these three tongues to be retained and maintained in the churches of Christ to the world’ s end. Hebricians, saith Reuchlin, drink of the fountains; Grecians of the rivers; Latinists of the standing pools only. There were that mocked at the multitude of tongues. And the monks were mad almost at such Camilli literarii as chased out barbarism and brought in the learned languages. But let us acknowledge it a singular gift of God, as for the gathering of the Church at first, so still for the edifying of the body of Christ, "till we all come unto a perfect man," to speak the language of Canaan, in the kingdom of heaven. And from thence did the Lord scatter them.] The Hebrew doctors say, that at this dispersion there were seventy nations, with seventy various languages. Epiphanius saith, that their one language was divided into seventy-two; for so many men were then present, and each man had his own dialect, and went his own way with it. Cleopatra is famous in history for her skill in tongues. She could give a ready answer to ambassadors that came, whether they were Ethiopians, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, or Parthians. Yea, she could tune and turn her tongue, as an instrument of many strings, saith Plutarch, to whatever language she pleased. This minds me of those cloven tongues, and of that utterance the Spirit gave them. "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians heard" the apostles speak "in their own tongue the wonderful works of God," to the singular advantage of the Church, that was then out of all nations to be collected, and that by a like means as these rebels were scattered. Hebraei bibunt fontes, Greci rivos, Latini paludes . Joh. Manlii. loc. com., p. 130. R. Menahem in Gen. xi. τηνγλωττανωσπεροργανοντιπολυχορδεο, ευπετωςτρεπουσαπροςηνβουλοιτοδιαλεκτον. Plut.

(9) Therefore is the name of it called Babel.—Babel is, in Aramaic, Bab-el, the gate of God, and in Assyrian, Bab-ili (Genesis 10:10). It is strange that any one should have derived the word from Bab-Bel, the gate of Bel, for there is no trace that the second b was ever doubled; moreover, Bel is for Baal; and though we Westerns omit the strong guttural, because we cannot pronounce it, the Orientals would preserve it. El is the regular Semitic word for God—in Assyrian, Ili; in Arabic, Ilah; in Syriac, Moho. So far from diminishing, this increases the force of the Scriptural derivation. Man calls his projected city Bab-el, the gate—that is, the court—of God; God calls it Babble; for in all languages indistinct and confused speech is represented by the action of the lips in producing the sound of b. The exact Hebrew word for this was balbal—the Greek verb, bambaino; the Latin, balbutio; and a man who stammered was called balbus. The town, then, keeps-its first name, but with a contemptuous meaning attached to it; just as Nabal (1 Samuel 25:25) may really have had his name from the nabla, or harp, but from the day that his wife gave it a contemptuous meaning Nabal has signified only folly. The Babylonian legends are in remarkable agreement with the Hebrew narrative. They represent the building of the tower as impious, and as a sort of Titanic attempt to scale the heavens. This means that the work was one of vast purpose; for there is something in the human mind which attaches the idea of impiety to all stupendous undertakings, and the popular feeling is always one of rejoicing at their failure. The gods therefore destroy at night what the builders had wrought by day; and finally, Bel, “the father of the gods,” confounds their languages. It is remarkable that the very word used here is bâlai (or perhaps bâlâh), and thus the meaning of “confusion” would attach to the word equally in the Assyrian as in the Hebrew language (Chald. Gen., p. 166). One question remains: Was the tower of Babel the temple of Bel destroyed by Xerxes, and which was situated in the centre of Babylon? or was it the tower of Borsippa, the site of which was in one of the suburbs, about two miles to the south? This tower was the observatory of the Chaldean astronomers, and its name, according to Oppert, means “the tower of languages.” We incline to the belief that this ruin, now called the Birs-Nimrud, was the original tower, and that the temple of Bel was a later construction, belonging to the palmy times of the Chaldean monarchy. An account of it will be found in Sayce, Chald. Gen., pp. 169, 170, and in Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., i. 12, 21, &c.

Verse 9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel] בבל babel, from בל bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah; and this confounding did not so much imply the producing new languages, as giving them a different method of pronouncing the same words, and leading them to affix different ideas to them. Besides Mr. Hutchinson's opinion, (See Clarke on Genesis 11:4,) there have been various conjectures concerning the purpose for which this tower was built. Some suppose it was intended to prevent the effects of another flood, by affording an asylum to the builders and their families in case of another general deluge. Others think that it was designed to be a grand city, the seat of government, in order to prevent a general dispersion. This God would not permit, as he had purposed that men should be dispersed over the earth, and therefore caused the means which they were using to prevent it to become the grand instrument of its accomplishment. Humanly speaking, the earth could not have so speedily peopled, had it not been for this very circumstance which the counsel of man had devised to prevent it. Some say that these builders were divided into seventy-two nations, with seventy-two different languages; but this is an idle, unfounded tale.

9. Therefore was the name of it called Babel] Babel is the regular Hebrew form of the name Babylon, see Genesis 10:10. The etymology here given is popular; cf. Genesis 16:14, Genesis 19:22 (J). Like most popular etymologies, it rests on a resemblance of sound, and has no claim to scientific accuracy. “Babel” is not a Hebrew name from balal = “to confound”; but very probably an Assyrian name meaning the “Gate of God,” Bab-ilu. confound] Heb. balal = “to confound,” the same word as in Genesis 11:7. To the Hebrew the sound of the name Babel suggested “confusion.” “Babel” is regarded as a contraction from a form Balbκl (which does not exist in Hebrew, but occurs in Aramaic) = “Confusion”: so LXX Σύγχυσις. This derivation, so derogatory to the great Babylonian capital, could hardly have been drawn from any Babylonian source. The story (if, as in Genesis 11:2-4, it shews acquaintance with Babylonia) has clearly come down to us through a channel which regarded Babylon as a foreigner and a foe.

9. Babel — Confusion; ααμ, contracted from αμαμ, derived from the verb αμμ, to pour together, to confound. (Gesenius.) So the Septuagint.