The Tower of Babel (Part 2)

Mel Rosenberg, 2002© all rights reserved

To return to Part 1, click here.

II.

Oh, but how quickly the excitement died down when the work begun! Building a tower higher than the clouds is not an easy job. Bricks must be baked, mortar must be mixed. The villagers of Babel, who had grown fat in the fertile valley of Shinar, had forgotten how to work hard.

“What shall we do?” they asked Gamla (who was now the town mayor). “Each day the tower grows a little higher and we must carry the bricks all the way to the top. We are not used to such hard work. We shall never finish the tower.”

“Do not be sad”, Gamla comforted the villagers. “I have another idea. We shall send our messengers to the far-off mountains, deserts and forests. People who live in such places have a hard life, and are used to hard work. They must be strong to find food and build shelters. We will invite these people to come and help us build the tower. In return we will offer them good food and shelter. You will see how quickly they come.”

Very soon the village of Babel was full of workers who had come from the desert, mountains and forests surrounding the valley. They were poor, hard-working, hungry people, more than happy to receive fresh fruit, meat, cheese and water in return for their help in building the great tower of Babel.

But as soon as they began working the troubles also started. The workers from the far-off lands all spoke different languages. The desert people could not understand what the villagers were telling them to do, and the mountain people could not speak to the forest people. Very soon everyone was talking and no one was listening.

“Give me that brick”, said the desert man in desert language.

“The mortar is too thick”, said the mountain man in mountain language.

“Climb up the ladder”, said the forest man in forest language.

“I cannot understand what any of you are saying”, screamed the villager.

The sound of all the workers talking at the same time grew and grew into a great roar. And the greater the roar grew, the louder all the workers shouted. This great noise grew and grew until other villages in the valley could hear it. And since they had never heard anything like it, they called it “babbling” since it came from the town of Babel.

The babbling of the shouting workers of Babel continued to grow and grow until it could be heard all over the land of Shinar.

 

To continue to Part 3, click here.

To return to Part 1, click here.

 

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