Now the whole world had one language and a common speech…
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” … Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
genesis 11:1-9 (abridged)
I always loved the story of the Towel of Babel growing up, but I could probably chalk that up to my love for different languages and learning them, and I liked the idea of God making the different languages in the world and all that would entail. It wasn’t until recently that I took another look at the story I had heard growing up and was able to reexamine it and change how I viewed everything. The lullaby effect had long since settled in, but getting the chance to see the story in a new way was enlightening. And it’s something I think other people should consider too. So let’s dive in.
