The consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin surfaced again in rebellion against God in Shinar (the ancient region of Babylonia or southern Mesopotamia; this area is today’s country of Iraq). As the population began to increase after the flood, God commanded people to repopulate all of the earth. Instead of obeying, they settled on a plain in Shinar. Because stone was scarce in that area, they developed the technology to make bricks and constructed a city. Motivated by pride and the desire to establish some kind of powerful humanistic empire, the rebels erected a skyscraper type of temple-tower in the city centre.
The rebels’ blatant defiance of the Lord did not go unnoticed. There was no limit to what they might do if God did not stop them. At this time in civilization’s development, everyone spoke the same language. The Lord, knowing exactly how to stop them, confused them with different languages and forced them to scatter all over the world. The tower was given the name Babel. (This is a play on words. In Hebrew, Babel means “confusion,” but in Babylonian literature it refers to “the gate of god.”)
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