Bible Strands
Genesis 11:7
Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks in the divine council immediately after declaring that a unified people with one language can accomplish anything. He addresses the moment before scattering the builders across the earth.
The words — נֵֽרְדָ֔ה (ne.re.Dah) means "let us go down," and וְ/נָבְלָ֥ה (ve./na.ve.Lah) means "and let us confuse." The text states God will descend to disrupt their shared speech so they will not hear one another.
The thread — The motif of divine intervention against human schemes appears in Psalms 33:10 and Job 5:12. God’s creative command in Genesis 1:26 establishes human dominion, contrasting with the later judgment on unified ambition.
Why it lands — The text records God actively disrupting human communication to halt a centralized project. It demands recognition that divine sovereignty overrides collective human ambition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Cross-references
- Psalms 33:10 The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Job 5:12 He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- Psalms 55:9 O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
- 1 Corinthians 14:2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
- Genesis 42:23 They did not realize that Joseph understood them, since there was an interpreter between them.
- Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
- 1 Corinthians 14:23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who are uninstructed or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
- Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
- Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,