Genesis 10-11a

21 Dec 2025 - Theology

Genesis 10-11:1-9 - The Tower of Babel

Man does not know when to say enough - when to stop creating and when to stop destroying.

J source - the Lord (Adonai)

Problems:

• people are moving east away from the Garden of Eden (11:2)
• evil is organizing from an individual choice to now a civilization
• the people don’t want to be scattered, but why is that a worry? (11:4)
• the people in Genesis 10:5,20,31 have different languages, but here the Lord says they all have one language (11:1,6)
• the story of the Tower of Babel is in the middle of a geneology in Genesis 10 and 11:10-32
• more verses on Nimrod and his kingdom than on anyone else in the geneology (10:8-12)
• Is God threatened by the advances of the people?
• Why doesn’t God want them to build a tower?
• Is it just the tower that is the supposed problem? Every mention of the tower is together with the city (11:4-5)

Nimrod

Does the Tower of Babel story interrupt the geneology of Shem because Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, was trying to damage Shem’s line?

The name Nimrod comes from the Semitic root MRD meaning “to rebel”.
Genesis 10:9 - Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord
mighty hunter = gibor hunter = warrior hunter
The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, or Babylon in Greek. Nimrod was trying to organize evil and get people to settle eastward from God’s intent.
After the flood, is Nimrod building a tall tower so that not even God can knock him down?

The Lord is not threatened by the advances of the people, but He wants to bring the people back to His intention, back west to the land of the Garden of Eden with peace, stewardship, and partnership with Him.

Technology

Is the brick (technology) the problem?
Genesis 11:3 - “they said”
Genesis 11:4 - “And they said”
This is a literary technique. Whenever someone says something and then the next verse starts with “And they said”, it means that there was a pause in the middle. In this case, the people made brick and slime (tar), there was a pause (where God said nothing), and then they built a city and a tower.
Technology itself is not the problem, it depends on how we use it and what we do with it.

The Hebrew story doesn’t frame the Lord’s response as a punishment. He could have done much worse to stop the city and tower from being built. Rather, the Lord confused their languages because they were not following His plan for peace, love, and partnership with Him.

Our culture is so easily divided and scattered. The lesson of the story is that in order to become less divided, we must learn the language of others. In learning to learn the perspectives of others, we grow in love and better reflect the image and will of God.

Babel = “Confusion”

Larger Genesis Narrative

Noah and the vineyard – Adam and Eve in the garden
Flood – Creation
Tower of Babel – Cain and Abel

Parallels with the Cain and Abel story:

• sacrifices/offerings to Heaven - tower to Heaven (11:4)
• Cain cursed to wander - the people are scattered (11:9)
• acquiring flocks, crops - acquiring brick, slime (11:3)

What we Learn

1. Where the people of Babylon (Shinar) originated - the East
2. Why their cities include huge towers - the ancient Mesopotamians built these “towers”, or ziggurats as bases for their temples, feeling that houses for the gods should be close to the heavens
3. Why the people came to speak many languages - Adonai scrambled the language of the whole earth (11:7,9)
4. How human beings are scattered across the earth - Adonai scattered the people across the face of the whole earth (11:8-9)

References

1. The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
2. The BEMA Podcast, Episode 6: A Tale of a Tower
3. The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)