Scattering of the World’s People

Slide 94 of 109

At one of the cities that Nimrod built, Babel, the people united together to build a huge tower "to heaven" in order to achieve a name for themselves in opposition to God.¹ So God confused their language and scattered them over the whole earth² to prevent the kind of wickedness that had taken place during the human unity prior to the flood.³ 

References

1. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:3-4)

2. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:8-9)

3. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)