Gen. 11 – Confounding Speech
Dear family and friends the first scripture in Genesis chapter 11 are magical. The impact that follows Genesis 11.1 is gargantuan. It has changed everyone’s life from the time of Babel until now!! It has altered every action in each of our lives. We cannot measure the impact. What am I referring to? The Lord God divided humans by interrupting their language. The original language of creation was Hebrew. In Genesis 11 The Lord God Divides humankind into seventy languages. Most of us are familiar with the story of The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Yet, many are not familiar with the impact of the intricate details.
The world then was שָׂפָה אֶחָת Saw Fawh – Eh Chawt meaning one language / one speech. In addition, our Torah Informs us that all the residents of earth were וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים Voo Dih Vaw Reem – A Chaw Deem ‘Meaning each word was one.’ The second portion of The Scripture is perhaps a little strange. How could their words be one? In that day each word had only one specific meaning. There were not multiple possibilities like there are in our age. Communication was designed to be exact back then. There were no possible misunderstandings back then.
וַיְהִי כָל־הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים: ס
Genesis 11.1
And behold, All the earth was one language/speech and their words were one word/utterance.
So Nimrod’s kingdom was united in language and in word to rebel against The Lord God’s Directive to replenish the earth. They rebelled against being dispersed throughout the world. In opposition to dispersing they built a city and began constructing a tower whose top was intended to reach into Heaven. There is so much the English translation omits. וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם Voo Mee Gih Dawl – Vih Roh Sho – Vah Shi Mah Yeem – meaning a tower – A small tower that sits upon a larger tower, a pulpit. We are discussing a tower intended to usurp The Lord God’s Authority. The second Word, וְרֹאשׁוֹ Vih Roh Sho means ‘The head’. Perhaps this tower would serve as an enormous idol protruding from the earth to The Heaven. The point is the unity they possessed was dangerous. So The Lord God Confounded The Holy language for some of them! Instantly their communication was confounded. Then following the confounding of language meanings of each word was confused. The confounding of language impacts each of us right here and right now! We struggle with communication on many levels. Husbands and wives have issues communicating. Employers and employees struggle with communication. Words in our age have different meanings than they used to. We wonder which meaning is intended!
וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָבָה ׀ נִבְנֶה־לָּנוּ עִיר וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם וְנַעֲשֶׂה־לָּנוּ שֵׁם פֶּן־נָפוּץ עַל־פְּנֵי כָל־הָאָרֶץ: ס
Genesis 11.4
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
When Noah and his sons and their wives exited the Ark with the animal’s confusion of The Original Language, i.e. Hebrew had not occurred. Still, they were quickly approaching the diversity of language and etymology.
Noah and the descendants from his son Shem continued to communicate with Hebrew. However, the rest of the world was impacted by their language being changed. How can we be so certain? Noah was The High Priest of the world until he was emasculated by Ham. It was at that time Noah Blessed Shem And cursed the fourth son of Ham. Noah said, ‘Blessed be The Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his slave.’ Genesis 9 It was necessary for Noah to pass his Priestly responsibilities on to Shem because he could not serve as a priest any longer. One may not serve as a priest if they have physical deformities such as Noah׳s. Ham was an anti-semite. He emasculated his father to prevent the formation and development of The People of Israel. The Midrash informs us that Ham, the dog, and the raven each misbehaved on the Ark. Each copulated with their mate after being instructed to abstain. As a result, Ham’s skin turned black. Later Ham retaliated against Noah by emasculating him. See Bereishis Rabba 36.7
Is this the account of how the black race was formed? I cannot say with absolute certainty.
Leviticus 21.18
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he is of your seed in their generations who has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whichever man he is who has a blemish, he shall not approach; a blind man, or a lame, or he who has a flat nose, or anything superfluous, Or a man who is broken footed, or broken handed, Or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or who has a blemish in his eye, or is scurvy, or scabbed, or has his stones broken; No man, of the seed of Aaron the priest, who has a blemish shall come close to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire; he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go into the veil, nor come near to the altar, because he has a blemish; that he profane, not my sanctuaries; for I The Lord do sanctify them. And Moses told it to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all The people of Israel.
Genesis 10 and 11 Speaks of Nimrod. Nimrod was a descendant of Ham. They are from the descendants of Canaan who was cursed by Noah. We must be careful around them. Abraham and Isaac forbid their children to inter-marry with them.
Those of us who desire to have a happy blessed life would be wise to observe the commands of The Torah. May we do our best to stay within Torah’s Guidelines of righteous living. May we help others, May we bring peace and healing to our world. May this coming Sabbath and every Sabbath be a blessed Day.
Akiva Gamliel Belk
