11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people 1 had started 2 building. 11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language 3 they have begun to do this, then 4 nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. 5
1 tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.
2 tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.
3 tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”
4 tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”
5 tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”