of the notice is confirmed by the excavated remains of Bab. houses and temples (ATLO2, 279)—4. With its top reaching to heaven] The expression is not hyperbolical (as Dt. 128), but represents the serious purpose of the builders to raise their work to the height of the dwelling-place of the gods (Jub. x. 19, etc.).
The most conspicuous feature of a Bab. sanctuary was its zikkurat,—a
huge pyramidal tower rising, often in 7 terraces, from the centre
of the temple-area, and crowned with a shrine at the top (Her. i.
181 f.: see Jast. RBA, 615-22). These structures appear to have
embodied a half-cosmical, half-religious symbolism: the 7 stories
represented the 7 planetary deities as mediators between heaven and
earth; the ascent of the tower was a meritorious approach to the
gods; and the summit was regarded as the entrance to heaven
(KAT3, 616 f.; ATLO2, 52 f., 281 f.). Hence it is probably something more
than mere hyperbole when it is said of these zikkurats that the top was
made to reach heaven (see p. 228 f. below); and, on the other hand, the
resemblance between the language of the inscrs. and that of Genesis
is too striking to be dismissed as accidental. That the tower of
Gn. 11 is a Bab. zikkurat is obvious on every ground; and we may
readily suppose that a faint echo of the religious ideas just spoken of
is preserved in the legend; although to the purer faith of the Hebrews
it savoured only of human pride and presumption.—The idea of
storming heaven and making war on the gods, which is suggested
by some late forms of the legend (cf. Hom. Od. xi. 313 ff.), is no doubt
foreign to the passage.
4b. Lest we disperse] The tower was to be at once a
symbol of the unity of the race, and a centre and rallying-point,
visible all over the earth (IEz.). The idea is missed
by GV and TJ, which render 'ere we be dispersed.'
verbal use 2921 301 (both E), 4715, and pl. ((
Hebrew characters)) (4716, Dt. 118 323,
Jos. 184. On the whole, the two uses are characteristic of J and E
respectively; see Holz. Einl. 98 f.—(Hebrew characters)] Ex. 57. 14. So in Ass.
labânu libittu (KIB, ii. 48, etc.), although libittu is used only of the
unburned, sun-dried brick. See Nö. ZDMG, xxxvi. 181; Hoffmann,
ZATW, ii. 70.—(Hebrew characters)] dat. of product (Di.); (Hebrew characters) = 'burnt mass' (cf. Dt. 2922,
Jer. 5125).—(Hebrew characters) (1410), Ex. 23)] the native Heb. name for bitumen (see on
614).—(Hebrew characters)] (note the play on words) is strictly 'clay,' used in Palestine as
mortar.—4. (Hebrew characters)] (Hebrew characters) of contact, as in (Hebrew characters) (De.).—(Hebrew characters)—(Hebrew characters)] 'acquire
lasting renown'; cf. 2 Sa. 813, Jer. 3220, Neh. 910. The suggestion that
(Hebrew characters) here has the sense of 'monument,' though defended by De. Bud.
(Urg. 3752), al. (cf. Sieg.-St. s.v.), has no sufficient justification in usage.
In Is. 5513 565 (cf. 2 Sa. 1818), as well as the amended text of 2 Sa 813
