Biblical Hebrew Forum

[nachmanl AT juno.com (nachman levine)]

HYH +L:
Is there intertextual allusion in Gen. 11:3? The description of Man's
brickmaking, Man creating from earth to heaven, "VTHY (lahem hlvnh)
L+EVEN (vhchmr) HYH (lhm) L+CHOMER", echoes God's creation of earth (and
dispersal =[2:10]: ("Venhr ytze miKEDEM . . . ) VHYH L+ARBH R$YM (UMshm
yprd") and God's creation of Man (2:7) "VyYHY [hAdam] L+NFSH CHYH" [which
Onkelos translates as: Nefesh mml`, a speaking soul] who in Gen.11 now
creates through language and is dispersed. God's concerns about Man's
unity and His argument for his dispersal here, 11:6: "HN AM ECHAD VSafah
ACHAT LiKulam" echoes His concerns about Man and His argument for his
dispersal in Gen 3:22: "HN HAdam HYH  K'ACHAD Mmnu": "the man is (or has
become) like one of us".  (God disperses the man eastward, M'Kedem l'Eden
(3:24) as the towers builders come FROM the east (11:2, "Vyh B'nas`m
miKEDEM"). The allusion may play on the subtext of ADAM/bny HaAdam,
creation, language, unification/dispersal, in reading Man's creation
(Gen.11) against God's creation (Gen. 1-2).

NachmanL AT Juno.com

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