The Tower of Babel

In getting back to reading the scriptures, I have been reading the Bible as my daily scripture study.  I have always liked the stories from the Bible and find the history very interesting.   So last week I was a little disappointed when I read the story about the Tower of Babel. 

I can’t tell you how long it has been since I last read the Old Testament, but it has been a very long time.  So somewhere I got in my mind that this was a really big story, that God came down and rained terror on the people for building the tower.  That he came down and destroyed it.  But when you start reading Genesis 11, I did not get this from the writer at all.

In Verse 2, we learn that this is in the land of Shinar.  The next verse, we learn how they make bricks and use slime as mortar.  It is in verse 4, that the city and the tower are built.

In Verses 5-8, this is where the Lord comes down and sees what the people are doing.  That they were of one language and one in building the tower, and they would not listen to the Lord.  So in verse 7, he confounds the language, and in verse 8, he scattered them abroad all the Earth.  In verse 9, the city is named, Babel, because of the confounding of the language.  Just 8 verse for this story. 
I think for me, I was looking for fire and brimstone, but all we get is the language is confound and people are scattered.

When my sister worked for NASA, she said that she had seen pictures of the tower of Babel.  From doing a little research online, I came across a video that talked about the tower, and one thing that came to me, was that Babel, became Babylon.  The video talked about King Nebuchdnezzar, and how he somewhat rebuild the tower, and built terraces in which was planted gardens.  The famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon were just down the road from it.  It also said the foundation corners were huge.


Even though the story was somewhat a disappointment to me, it is still a place that I would love to visit, if it was ever open to public viewing.

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