BABEL

'Babel' (; ''Bavel'') (Arabic: بابل; ''Babel'') is the name used in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an for the city of 'Babylon' (Akkadian 'Babilu'), notable in Genesis as the location of the Tower of Babel.
In Gen. 11:9, the name of Babel is etymologized by association with the Hebrew verb ''balal'', "to confuse or confound": ''Balal'' is regarded as a contraction of earlier ''
★ balbal''. The name ''bab-ilu'' in Akkadian means "gate of god" (from bab "gate" + ilu "god"). The word "bab-el" can also be seen to mean "gate of god" (from bab "gate" + el "god").
"Babel" is often pronounced like "babble", but in standard English it rhymes with "gable"

Contents

Genesis

Babylonian captivity

References

Genesis

Babel is mentioned in Genesis 10:10 as the home city of Nimrod.
:[10] ''And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel(Persia), and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.'' [11] ''Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,'' [12] ''And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.'' (KJV)
According to Genesis 11:1-9, humankind, after the deluge, traveled from the mountain where the ark had rested, and settled in 'a plain in the land of Shinar' (or Senaar). Here, they attempted to build a city and a tower whose top might reach unto Heaven, the Tower of Babel.
The attempt to build the Tower of Babel had angered God who made each person involved speak a different language which ultimately halted the project and scattered and disconnected the people across the planet.

Babylonian captivity

Main articles: Babylonian captivity

Babel features in the prophecies of Jeremiah, and Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem is told in 2 Kings. The Book of Daniel is set at time of the Babylonian captivity. Such later references to Babel are normally translated into the more familiar Greek form "Babylon".

References