Babel

For other uses, see Babel (disambiguation)}}}.

See Babylon for an account of the historical city.

Babel (Hebrew: בָּבֶל; Bavel) is the name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon, notable as the location of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11:9, the name of Babel is etymologized by association with the Hebrew verb balal, "to confuse or confound": Babel is regarded as a contraction of *Balbel. The actual etymology of the name is from bab-ilu, Akkadian for "gate of the god".

Genesis

Babel is mentioned in Genesis 10:10 as the home city of Nimrod.

[10] And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. [11] Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, [12] And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. (KJV)

According to Genesis 11:1-9, mankind, after the deluge, travelled from the mountain of the East, where the ark had rested, and settled in 'a plain in the land of Shinar' (or Sennar). Here, they attempted to build a city and a tower whose top might reach unto Heaven, the Tower of Babel.

Babylonian captivity

Babel features in the prophecies of Jeremiah, and Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem is told in 2 Kings. The Book of Daniel is set at time of the Babylonian captivity itself. Such later references to Babel are normally translated into the more familiar Greek form "Babylon".

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