Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Sesamo m. <sesamox AT hotmail.com>]

"5And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men 
have builded; 6and Jehovah saith, `Lo, the people [is] one, and one 
pronunciation [is] to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, 
nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do. 7Give 
help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man 
doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.' 
 8And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, 
and they cease to build the city; (Gen 11:5-8, Young's Literal Translation).
 
Verse 5 seems to imply that the tower and the city had been already built. 
But verse 8 shows that at least the city wasn't completely built.
I'm not an expert in Hebrew, but I remember having read when I was a student 
that the perfect aspect of the Hebrew verbs might be used for something you 
haven't necessarily done, but that you are determined to do, something you 
consider done. My explanation is not very academic, but I hope you understand 
what I mean.
And my question is, could this text admit the possibility that the tower 
itself hadn't been built when Jehovah scattered the people?
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