Tower of Babel - Shinar = Babylon

We revisit the Tower of Babel here in connection with Shinar. In Genesis 10:8 we see that Nimrod is the founder of Babel and other cities in the land of Shinar. Various sources agree that Shinar is also the location for Babylon. Perhaps Babylon was at the same site as Babel which existed before it. It was the arrogance of man that led to the Babel project, which led God to destroy the project by dispersing them. One way that God dispersed the people building Babel is to confuse their language. It is ineresting to note that at the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, and the people shared the same language again.

In the Daniel passage below, it clearly identifies Shinar with Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon brought the plunder from Isreal back to Shinar.

In the Isaiah passage below, Shinar is also mentioned. The passage appears to be the fulfilment of the return of Jews from all over the world to Isreal which was created 60 years ago.

The passage in Zechariah seems to be a vision. In particular one interpretation may be the preparation for the future rebuilding of Babylon (To build a house for it in the land of Shinar) as the opposite of God's Holy city of Jerusalem.




Genesis 10

8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).


Genesis 11:1-9

 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 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. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.



Daniel 1:
 1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.


Isaiah 11:
 11 It shall come to pass in that day
      That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
      To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
      From Assyria and Egypt,
      From Pathros and Cush,
      From Elam and Shinar,
      From Hamath and the islands of the sea.
       12 He will set up a banner for the nations,
      And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
      And gather together the dispersed of Judah
      From the four corners of the earth.


Zechariah 5

5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”
6 So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket[a] that is going forth.”
He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth: 7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”; 8 then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover[b] over its mouth. 9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”
11 And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar;[c] when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”