Genesis 11:4

a city, and a tower The story seems to suggest that in the abandonment of tent for city life these primitive people were disobeying the Divine command.

whose topmay reach unto heaven Lit. "its top in heaven."

Probably the words are intended quite literally to suggest the endeavour to "reach unto" Heaven, which was regarded as a solid vault. As the highest stage in an Assyrian or Babylonian pyramid, Ziggurat,was surmounted by a shrine of the deity, there is perhaps more meaning and less fancifulness in these words than has often been suspected.

It is natural to compare the later Greek legend of the giants who sought to scale Olympus and to dethrone Zeus. But there is no indication of warlike defiance.

The famous tower at Borsippa, on the left bank of the Euphrates, whose ruins now go by the name of Birs Nimrud, was a temple dedicated to Bel-Nebo, and rose in seven tiers or stages, representing the seven planets. This building, having fallen into ruins, was restored by Nebuchadnezzar. A similar building, E-sagil, dedicated to Bel Merodach, the patron god of the city, must have been one of the most enormous structures of ancient Babylon. The fame of temple towers or pyramids, Ziggurats, of this description was doubtless widely current throughout Western Asia, and may have given rise to strange legends concerning their erection in primitive times.

let us make us a name i.e. make ourselves renowned. Cf. Isaiah 63:12, "to make himself an everlasting name"; 2 Samuel 7:23, "to make him a name." For the Heb. shêm= "name" in the sense of "renown," cf. Genesis 6:4, "the men of renown"; Isaiah 55:13, "it shall be to the Lord for a name." Some scholars prefer to render shêmby "monument," or "memorial," as possibly in 2 Samuel 8:13. Old Jewish commentators thought it might refer to Shem, or even to the sacred Name of the Almighty!

lest we be scattered abroad The tower was to be visible to the whole world, and make its builders famous for ever. The tower and the city would be a conspicuous place for purposes of concentration and defence. It was apparently (see Genesis 11:6) the Lord's will that the people should scatter over the world. The people resolved upon a project which would frustrate the Divine purpose, gratify their own ambition, and protect them as far as possible against punishment. Distance and isolation meant danger.