The big ideaThe Bible tells us the people who built a tower were spread over the earth.
How it works
At first everyone on earth spoke the same language. The people settled on a wide, flat plain in the land of Shinar, between two big rivers.
They made bricks of river mud, baked them hard in the fire and joined them with sticky tar. They planned a city and a tower that reached the sky, and wanted to make a great name for themselves.
The Bible says God came down to see the tower and mixed up their language. The builders could no longer understand each other, so they stopped.
The people spread out over the earth, some north, some south, some east and some west. The place was named Babel, which means mixed up.
The story in a row.Before and after.
Example 1: What the bricks were made of
In that land bricks were made of river mud.
They were dried in the sun or baked hard in the fire.
Sticky tar held them together instead of stone.
Example 2: Why they could not go on
Builders need to share plans.
When one worker called for a brick, his friend heard only strange sounds.
Without a shared language they could not plan, so they stopped building.
Example 3: Which way did they go?
Some went north.
Some went south.
Some went east, and some went west, each with their own words.
Example 4: A stepped tower
In that land people built stepped towers of brick.
They had stairs up the sides.
Workers carried bricks up ladders and called to each other as they worked.
Words to know
scatter
To spread out in many directions.
Babel
The place whose name means mixed up in the Bible's telling.
Watch out
The bricks were river mud, not glass. In those days there were no steel cranes: workers carried bricks up ladders.
The tower was never finished. It was left half built on the plain.
Babel means mixed up. It is the name of the place where the language was mixed up.
Try it
What did the builders use to hold the bricks together?
What happened to the builders' words?
What does Babel mean?
Where did the people go after the tower?
Answers: 1. Sticky tar · 2. They got mixed up · 3. Mixed up · 4. Out over the whole earth, in every direction
Try at homeWith a grown-up, find out how to say hello in a language you do not speak yet, and try it out.
For grown-upsTry the mission together: find out how to say hello in a language you do not speak yet. The story tells how people came to speak many languages; kindness to someone who speaks differently can be the part your child remembers.
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