This word is transliterated as chemar, and means bitumen or asphalt.Īccording to the Merriam-webster dictionary, bitumen is: an asphalt of Asia Minor used in ancient times as a cement and mortar. You might have been surprised to find the word asphalt in the Bible. The Bible says in Genesis 11:3 (NJKV), “Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.” Let’s look at the words asphalt and brick. His government would have been responsible for planning, gathering the resources and eventually building the Tower of Babel. He and his officials were probably the driving force behind the tower. Nimrod, as mentioned earlier, founded the city of Babel and other cities in Shinar. Genesis 10:8-10 gives some background information about the land of Shinar and says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. In Hebrew, Shinar means the “country of two rivers” which refers to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that flow through Iraq. The Tower of Babel was located in the plain of Shinar which is most likely in present-day Iraq. The name, Tower of Babel, is fitting since God eventually confused the builders’ language so they couldn’t understand one another. Looking a little deeper, the Hebrew word Babel or Babylon, בָּבֶל, means “confusion” (by mixing) and is derived from the Hebrew word, balal, which means “to mix, mingle, confuse, confound”. What does the Tower of Babel symbolize?.The builders’ purpose was to make a name for themselves by creating a city with a tower that would reach the heavens and to protect themselves from another flood. The tower was constructed out of baked bricks which were most likely kiln-dried with fire, see Genesis 11:3. The Tower of Babel was built soon after Noah’s flood in the plain of Shinar.
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