Genesis 11:8-9

11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building ¹  the city. 11:9 That is why its name was called ²  Babel ³  – 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.

Psalms 92:9

92:9 Indeed, ⁴  look at your enemies, O Lord!

Indeed, ⁵  look at how your enemies perish!

All the evildoers are scattered!

Luke 1:51

1:51 He has demonstrated power ⁶  with his arm; he has scattered those whose pride wells up from the sheer arrogance ⁷  of their hearts.

[11:8]  ¹ tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing.

[11:9]  ² tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ³ 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).

[92:9]  ⁴ tn Or “for.”

[92:9]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[1:51]  ⁶ tn Or “shown strength,” “performed powerful deeds.” The verbs here switch to aorist tense through 1:55. This is how God will act in general for his people as they look to his ultimate deliverance.

[1:51]  ⁷ tn Grk “in the imaginations of their hearts.” The psalm rebukes the arrogance of the proud, who think that power is their sovereign right. Here διανοίᾳ (dianoia) can be understood as a dative of sphere or reference/respect.