““Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.””

Genesis 11:4

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Go deeper on this verse (4)

The Tower of Babel: Why God Came Down to Scatter Them (Genesis 11:1-9)
Why Babel's builders wanted a name
At Babel the builders said, "make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). The Hebrew shem means far more than a label: your reputation, your memorial, what is said of you after you are gone. They also built so they would not be scattered, setting their project against God's command to fill the earth. They wanted to be known while refusing to be known by the God who speaks.
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Connection with Nimrod's kingdom
In Genesis 10 Nimrod built the first kingdom, starting on the plain of Shinar. On that same plain the builders of Babel set out to "make a name for ourselves." They were following the road Nimrod was already on.
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Connection with Jacob’s ladder
In Hebrew this tower and Jacob's ladder are described with the same words: its rosh (H7218), its top, in the heavens. Genesis names Babel (H894) for the confusion God sent there (Genesis 11:9).
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