Genesis 11:9

Hebrew Bible

7 Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth. 10 This is the account of Shem. Shem was 100 years old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

Zephaniah 3:9

Hebrew Bible

7 I thought, ‘Certainly you will respect me! Now you will accept correction!’If she had done so, her home would not be destroyed by all the punishments I have threatened. But they eagerly sinned in everything they did. 8 Therefore you must wait patiently for me,” says the Lord, “for the day when I attack and take plunder. I have decided to gather nations together and assemble kingdoms, so I can pour out my fury on them—all my raging anger. For the whole earth will be consumed by my fiery anger. 9 Know for sure that I will then restore to the nations a pure speech.32 All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray and will worship him in unison. 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, those who pray to me, my dispersed people, will bring me tribute. 11 In that day you will not be ashamed of all your rebelliousness against me, for then I will remove from your midst those who proudly boast, and you will never again be arrogant on my holy hill.

 Notes and References

"... strong parallels exist between the images of Yahweh dispersing the Israelites as a consequence of idolatry and Yahweh’s dispersal of mankind at Babel as a consequence of rebellion. Images of the dispersal of Israel most often employ the verb in the hiphil (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:27; 28:64; 30:3; Nehemiah 1:8; Isaiah 11:12; Jeremiah 9:16; 13:24; 30:11; Ezekiel 11:16; 12:15; Amos 5:15, etc.). The same verb is found twice in Genesis 11:8 where Yahweh scatters the rebellious at Babel, and also in Genesis 10:18 with reference to the Canaanites spreading abroad ... a number of other literary and thematic parallels may be discerned between Zephaniah 3:8-13 and the Babel pericope ... Note, for example, the similarities in language: “all the earth” (Zephaniah 3:8 and Genesis 11:1, 4); “lip,” “language,” “tongue” (Zephaniah 3:9 and Genesis 11:1, 6, 9); “people (Zephaniah 3:8; Genesis 11:6); “pure” (Zephaniah 3:9) ... “they will take refuge in the name of Yahweh” (Zephaniah 3:12), counteracts the phrase, “let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4) ..."

Burrell, Kevin ‘From Beyond the Rivers of Cush’: Negotiating Ethnic Identity and Cushite-Israelite Interrelations in the Hebrew Bible (pp. 265-266) University of Stellenbosch, 2018

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