Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
- KJV Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
- NKJV Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
- NASB Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
- NLT Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”
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
God resolved to go down and confuse their language so they could not understand one another. He acts to halt their prideful project.
Overview
Using the plural come, let us, echoing earlier divine deliberations, God determines to confound human speech. By multiplying languages, He frustrates the rebellion and enforces the scattering He had commanded. This judgment on language is graciously reversed at Pentecost, where the gospel of Christ is understood across every tongue.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Ps 33:10The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
- Job 5:12–13He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- Gen 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Ps 55:9O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
- 1 Cor 14:2–11For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
- 1 Cor 14:23So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who are uninstructed or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
- Acts 2:4–11And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
- Gen 42:23They did not realize that Joseph understood them, since there was an interpreter between them.
- Jer 5:15Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.
- Gen 3:22Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
- Deut 28:49The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
- Ps 2:4The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.
- Job 12:20He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders.
- Gen 10:20These are the sons of Ham according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.
- Isa 6:8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And I said: “Here am I. Send me!”
- Gen 11:5Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.
- Gen 10:32All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.
- Gen 10:5From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.
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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 11:7 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
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