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# babel

«babel» in Mova's judaism dictionary: **a story in Genesis where people tried to build a tower up…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (babel — noise); proper noun (Babel — the Tower of Babel)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (Bible) The Tower of Babel is a story in Genesis where people tried to build a tower up to heaven; God mixed up their language so they could not understand each other, and they spread over the earth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#m1)

2) A babel is a confused noise of many voices talking at once. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: In Genesis it is a city and the place of the tower. The name sounds like the Hebrew word for "confuse". Interpretation: God mixed up human language at Babel, and people scattered across the earth. The tradition reads the story as a warning against pride and against building to make a name for ourselves. In the primary lessons: In RE the Babel story is about pride and about why there are many languages. In everyday writing "a babel of voices" describes a busy market or noisy classroom. Phrases: the Tower of Babel, a babel of voices, a babel of languages.

### examples

- And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (Torah GEN.10.10, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x1)
- Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Torah GEN.11.9, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x2)
- The people of Babel wanted a tower that reached the sky. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x3)
- God confused their language, and work on the tower stopped. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x4)
- The station was a babel of voices in many languages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x5)
- Our classroom became a babel when the teacher left. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x6)
- We built a Tower of Babel from paper cups. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x7)
- The story of Babel explains why people speak different languages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/#x8)

### note

Capital B for the Bible place; small b for "confused noise". Say "BAY-bul". Not the same as "babble" (to talk fast and foolishly), though they sound alike and the meanings are close.

### In the corpora

- [And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.256/)
- [The Bible's story of the Tower of Babel was probably inspired by a real ziggurat in Babylon.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/17/)
- [The Babel story explains why people speak different languages.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/3-noah-and-the-tower-of-babel/18/)
- [Christians see Pentecost, when Jesus' followers were understood in many languages, as the reversal of Babel.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/3-noah-and-the-tower-of-babel/19/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «babel» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/B/babel/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.