seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
c. Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused
The blueletterbible.org commentary talks about the changes in humans after Babel.
Think what it was like for a family to leave the area of Babel and go out on their own. They must look for a suitable place to live, and once they found it, they must exist by hunting and gathering, living in crude dwellings or caves until they could support themselves by agriculture and taking advantage of the natural resources. Families would multiply rapidly, develop their own culture, and their own distinctive biological and physical characteristics influenced by their environment. In the small population, genetic characteristics change very quickly, and as the population of the group grew bigger, the changes stabilized and became more or less permanent.
The whole account of what happened at Babel with its anti-God dictator, its organized rebellion against God, and its direct distrust of God's promise shows man hasn't gotten any better since the flood. Time, progress, government, and organization have made man better off, but not better.
Now God will begin to make man better, and He will start as He always starts: with a man who will do His will, even if he does not do His will perfectly.
The whole account of what happened at Babel with its anti-God dictator, its organized rebellion against God, and its direct distrust of God's promise shows man hasn't gotten any better since the flood. Time, progress, government, and organization have made man better off, but not better.
Now God will begin to make man better, and He will start as He always starts: with a man who will do His will, even if he does not do His will perfectly.
This statement comes from the easy English commentary.
So the people did not have the things that they wanted. They wanted a city where they could live together. But God made them scatter. They wanted a tall building. But they did not complete it. And they wanted to show that they were important. But their plans failed because their plans were different from God’s plans.
This comment comes from christnotes.org.
They left off to build the city. The confusion of their tongues not only unfitted them for helping one another, but they saw the hand of the Lord gone out against them. It is wisdom to leave off that which we see God fights against. God is able to blast and bring to nought all the devices and designs of Babel-builders: there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord. The builders departed according to their families, and the tongue they spake, to the countries and places allotted to them. The children of men never did, nor ever will, come all together again, till the great day, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him.
