Genesis 11:6, commentary and pictures

After the flood Noah's descendants journeyed to the plain of Shinar and kept themselves united in one body with one speech, contrary to God's direction to disperse and replenish the earth. What they began to do was build a city with a tower of stupendous height reaching toward heaven, so high and massive that no flood could reach or sweep it away, to secure their safety and make themselves independent of God. The undertaking was rooted in distrust of His covenant and deliberate rebellion, seeking to exalt the founders, perpetuate their fame, and turn men from God to idolatry. Their oneness removed the restraint of division, so that had they been left unchecked they would have demoralized the world, banishing righteousness and the knowledge of God's holy law under a new religion of human devising. In answer to the prayers of those who feared Him, the Lord came down, confounded their language through angels so cooperation ended in confusion and strife, overthrew their purpose and scattered them to show that He rules supreme over human schemes.

Babel's Setting and Purpose

The verse belongs to the time after the flood when Noah's descendants had increased in number. Those who desired to forget their Creator and to cast off the restraint of His law fell into apostasy and separated themselves from the worshipers of God. They journeyed to the plain of Shinar on the banks of the Euphrates.

Contrary to God's direction to disperse throughout the earth to replenish and subdue it, their oneness as one people with one language was a determined resolve to keep the community united in one body and to avoid being scattered abroad in colonies. Their purpose was to found a monarchy that would eventually embrace the whole earth, with its city as the metropolis of a universal empire. What they began to do was to build a city with a tower of stupendous height reaching unto heaven, intended to be the wonder of the world.

It was to be made so high that no flood could rise to the top and so massive that nothing could sweep it away. By it they would secure their own safety from another deluge and make themselves independent of God. Some also meant to ascend to the region of the clouds to find the cause of the flood. The undertaking was rooted in distrust and rebellion, for they feared another flood despite God's covenant and would not trust Him to deliver them again by means like the ark.

At the same time they sought to exalt themselves as gods and rulers and to exalt the pride of the builders. They would render the founders illustrious and perpetuate their fame to the latest generations as a monument of their own power and wisdom. They would command the admiration and homage of the world. Their tower was meant to turn themselves and future minds from God to idolatry.

In this separation they corrupted the sacrificial system given after the fall and taught from Adam to his descendants, having no faith in the coming Redeemer. Instead of sacrificing to the God of heaven they sacrificed to idols and gods of their own choosing and making. Their superstition taught that the more valuable the offerings the greater the pleasure of their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation, leading to great extravagance. Their laws were often cruel in the extreme, made by hearts not softened by divine grace, passing over debasing crimes lightly while visiting small offenses with cruel punishment, and human beings were often sacrificed to senseless idols. The verse belongs to the account of the dispersion from Babel, about the time of which Nineveh was founded.

Unity Empowering Rebellion

The declaration that the people is one and they have all one language means that their common speech and complete unity gave them unhindered power to pursue their plan together, with no practical restraint from misunderstanding or division. That united purpose was directed toward rebellion, for they set themselves to build a city and tower to keep from being scattered, to secure themselves against another flood, to exalt themselves as gods and rulers, and to turn minds from God to idolatry. Their oneness therefore meant that nothing stood in the way of what they had begun to do except the intervention of God, who could bring their undertaking to a halt by confusing their speech and ending their cooperation and confederacy.

Their confederacy was born of rebellion against God, a heaven-daring and deliberate challenge established for self-exaltation and not for the glory of God. Almost completely united on the plain of Shinar, they set themselves to thwart His purposes and carry out their own, heeding not His counsel and refusing to be subject to His law. Yet among the builders there lived a few God-fearing men, some who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes, but who refused to join the confederacy and refused to be deceived by its wonderful representations and grand outlook. For the sake of these faithful ones judgment was delayed, and time was given for the ungodly to reveal their true character.

The warning that now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do means that had they been permitted to go on unchecked they would have demoralized the world by their wonderful plans. A mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and inaugurating a new religion that mixed certain religious ideas with a mass of erroneous theories, and that mixture would have closed the door to peace, happiness, and security. Carried out and perfected, those errors would have banished knowledge of Jehovah's law from minds that felt no need to obey the divine statutes, though those statutes are holy, just, and good, until allegiance was lost and the law was ignored and forgotten. Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have substituted laws framed according to the desires of their selfish hearts for the divine precepts in order to carry out their purposes, and would have permitted nothing to interfere with their plans or stop their evil course. Their unity did not make them independent of God, who remained supreme and able to intervene to stop their undertaking.

Divine Restraint and Aftermath

The words mark the answer to those who loved and feared God in the first great apostasy after the flood, who humbled themselves and cried for Him to interpose between His cause and the plans and methods of men. He bears long with the perversity of men, giving them ample opportunity for repentance, yet He marks all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, the great idol-building which rebellious men had built, defeated the purpose of its builders, and overthrew the memorial of their rebellion. As evidence of His displeasure He confounded the language of the builders, so that none could understand the words of his fellow-worker, and their shared speech and unity could no longer carry the work forward.

He brought their purpose to nothing by angels, for the tower was so lofty that workmen at the top could not speak directly with those at the base, and orders passed through men stationed at different points between them. As messages passed the speech was confused so that wrong material was called for and directions were reversed. The result was confusion and dismay, loss of harmony and cooperation, angry reproach, strife and bloodshed, a complete stop of the work, and the end of their confederacy. Lightnings from heaven in token of His displeasure broke off the upper portion of the tower and cast it to the ground.

Their scattering and the quenching of the project taught that there is a God who rules in the heavens, that He is supreme and able to confuse and multiply confusion to frustrate human plans. Defiant movements gain nothing but confusion, and men are taught by it that they are only men. Strong walls and gates and human schemes for security and greatness cannot protect from His judgment or prevent the consequences of living for self. The division of human speech was a result of sin that became a barrier to understanding and fellowship, pointing to the hope of a time when nothing will prevent people from communicating with one another.