Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

A few more observations I would like to add. We are told that Noah and  
his sons landed with their livestock in the mountains in an area which  
has been identified with Turkey.

We are then told in Genesis 11 that they were of one set of words and  
travelled eastwards until they found a valley plain in Shinar where  
they started to build Babel. This makes perfect sense. Coming out of  
the mountains with livestock they could prevent from running or flying  
away they travel eastwards along the furtile crescent and file the  
valley plain with a fresh water supply running through it. Just what  
they need to be able to drink, wash themselves and water their  
livestock.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.615127,44.01123&spn=14.066629,28.125&t=p&z=6

What is key to understanding the account is why they set about building a city

Genesis 11:4

for fear we may be scattered over all the surface of the earth

Which is exactly the opposite of what Elohim's purpose for mankind was:

Genesis 1:28

Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth

Yhwh then takes action and mixes up their language so that they leave  
off building the city and scatter throughout the earth. And that is  
exactly what they do. Genesis 10 tells us that Nimrod goes off to  
Assyria and builds Nineveh etc.

So, in summary, the idea of the story is a united group that find a  
nice place to settle and start building a city and then scatter  
throughout the earth because they no longer understand each other and  
are no longer able to make such highly organised cooperative efforts.

James Christian




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