And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
- BSB Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.
- NKJV But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
- NASB Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built.
- NLT But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yahweh came down to see the city and tower the people were building. God graciously, and ironically, condescends to inspect their lofty work.
Overview
The image of God coming down to see the tower that was meant to reach heaven exposes the smallness of human pride before the Almighty. What seemed great to the builders required God to stoop even to observe it. This divine condescension to examine human affairs anticipates the greater coming down of God in Christ, who descends in mercy to save.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 33:13–14The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
- Gen 18:21I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
- John 3:13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
- Heb 4:13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
- Jer 23:23–24Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
- Exod 19:11And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
- Exod 19:20And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
- Ps 11:4The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
- Exod 3:8And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
- Exod 19:18And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 11:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.