Commentary on Genesis John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON GENESIS
4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
4. Et dixerunt, Agite, aedificemus nobis urbem et turrim, cujus caput pertingat usque ad coelum, et faciamus nobis nomen, ne forte dispergamur in superficiem universae terrae.
5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
5. Et descendit Jehova ut videret urbem et turrim, quam aedificabant filii hominum.
6. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
6. Et dixit Jehova, En, populus unus, et labium unum est omnibus ipsis: et hoc est incipere eorum ut faciant, et nunc non prohibebitur ab eis quod cogitaverunt ut facerent.
7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
7. Agite, descendamus, et confundamus ibi labium eorum, ut non audiant unusquisque labium proximi sui.
8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
8. Et dispersit Jehova eos inde per superficiem omnis terrae, et cessaverunt aedificare civitatem.
9. Therefore is 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.
9. Propterea vocavit nomen ejus Babel: quia ibi confudit Jehova labium universae terrae, et inde dispersit eos Jehova in superficiem universae terrae.