Verbatim English

1D. And all the land was one language and few words.

1D! Yes, it literally says that the *land* was one language, not that it had one or that on it was one. True, Hebrew has no verb "to have", but there isn't the usual prepostion that would indicate possession ("to the land there was one language..."). What the above translation gives as "common speech" is, near as I can translate "few words." At least, that's the modern meaning of the word. The word I translate as "few" is syntactically a plural form of the word "one," so "common" may be implied. You can really drive yourself nuts when you consider that "word" also means "thing," but we'll let that alone.

2D. And it was when [they] travelled from Qedem/the east, [they] found a plain in the land [of] Shin`ar and [they] dwelt there.

2D! Not much to add here.

3D. And [one] man said to his friend, "Come! We'll brick bricks and burn to a burning." And the brick was to them (to) stone, and the clay was to them (to) material.

3D! "One man to his friend" is the Biblical Hebrew idiom for "one to another." "Come!" is a word (havah) that's used pretty much only in invitation to do something. It really does make "brick" into a verb, talking about "bricking bricks" and "burning (to) a burning" to discuss firing them. There are some extra prepositions which I've put into parens, but it basically says that the bricks were stones for them, and the "cheimar" was "chomer" to them. "Cheimar" is "clay" in Modern Hebrew (and likely was close then too); "Chomer" means "material" in Modern Hebrew, and almost surely does NOT mean that here. Note that the two words are closely related (same consonants). It presumably means that the "cheimar" was used as mortar.

4D. And they said, "Come! We'll build for us a city and a tower and its head [the tower's] in the sky, and we'll make for us a name, lest we be scattered on the face of all the earth."

4D! It has to be the tower whose head reaches the sky, since it says "his" head, and towers are masculine, while cities are feminine. A "name" is Hebrew idiom for "fame" or "reputation," as it is in English.

5D. And YHWH descended to see the city and the tower which the sons of Man (had) built.

5D! Hebrew's "past" tense is technically perfective, though it may have been shifting to simple past even in biblical times, but the Bible uses another tense (used nowhere else) for simple past most of the time.

6D. And YHWH said, "Behold, one nation, and [there is] one language for all of them, and this they have begun to do. And now, it will not be denied from them, all which they [will] plot to do.

6D! "Behold" is not properly a command, like in English, just a word like "jen" in Esperanto. I'm a little shaky on some of these. "They have begun" is "hachilam," and it should be "heicheilu" (in Modern Hebrew, hitchilu). I don't really know about the grammar form offhand; I'll look into it. I'm also not familiar with the verb I've translated as "deny," I admit that's from context. I'll look it up also.

7D. "Come! We will descend and we will confuse their language there, that [they] will not hear [one] man the language [of] his friend."

7D! "Will not hear" is in plural, but then follows the singular "one man his neighbor's language." I told you it was an idiom.

8D. And YHWH scattered them from there on the face of all the earth, and they ceased to build the city.

9D. Therefore called its name "Babel," because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth, and from there YHWH scattered them on the face of all the earth.

9D! There's no subject of what's doing the calling; it's not an uncommon construction, I think, presumably meaning that the name called itself "Babel". The thing named is the city, since it's feminine. The word for "confused" is "balal" from the root "B.L.L.", hence the name "babel."

:D. by Mark Shoulson

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