Genesis 11:7

11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse ¹  their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” ² 

Genesis 11:1

The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel

11:1 The whole earth ³  had a common language and a common vocabulary. ⁴ 

Genesis 41:17

41:17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing ⁵  by the edge of the Nile.

Genesis 41:3

41:3 Then seven bad-looking, thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile, ⁶  and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river. ⁷ 

Genesis 11:6

11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ⁸  they have begun to do this, then ⁹  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ¹¹  Babel ¹²  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Genesis 22:17

22:17 I will indeed bless you, ¹³  and I will greatly multiply ¹⁴  your descendants ¹⁵  so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession ¹⁶  of the strongholds ¹⁷  of their enemies.

[11:7]  ¹ tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235.

[11:7]  ² tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”

[11:1]  ³ sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38.

[11:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary.

[41:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “In my dream look, I was standing.” The use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here (and also in vv. 18, 19, 22, 23) invites the hearer (within the context of the narrative, Joseph; but in the broader sense the reader or hearer of the Book of Genesis) to observe the scene through Pharaoh’s eyes.

[41:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “And look, seven other cows were coming up after them from the Nile, bad of appearance and thin of flesh.”

[41:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Nile.” This has been replaced by “the river” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”

[11:6]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[11:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”

[11:9]  ¹¹ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ¹² sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[22:17]  ¹³ tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form (either an imperfect or cohortative) emphasizes the certainty of the blessing.

[22:17]  ¹⁴ tn Here too the infinitive absolute is used for emphasis before the following finite verb (either an imperfect or cohortative).

[22:17]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[22:17]  ¹⁶ tn Or “inherit.”

[22:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. To break through the gate complex would be to conquer the city, for the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”).