The Hebrew Bible says God "descended to see the city and the tower" of Babel (Genesis 11:5). Targum Onkelos will not allow that reading. God does not descend. Instead, "God became revealed in order to punish them because of the building of the city and the tower." Revelation replaces motion. Judgment replaces curiosity.
This is one of Onkelos's boldest rewritings. The Hebrew text presents God almost as a character in the story—coming down, looking around, reacting. Onkelos strips away every anthropomorphic element. God does not need to "see" anything. God reveals Himself for the purpose of judgment. The verb changes from observation to action.
"Come, let us descend and jumble their language" (Genesis 11:7)—the plural "us" troubled ancient readers. Onkelos translates: "Let us be revealed." He keeps the plural (a nod to the divine council, the heavenly court) but removes the physical descent. God does not move from one place to another. God's presence becomes manifest where it was previously hidden.
The builders' original transgression is preserved intact: "Come, we will build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach the height of the heavens. Thus we will make ourselves a name, so that we will not be scattered" (Genesis 11:4). Their ambition was not architectural but existential—they wanted permanence, fame, and unity on their own terms. God's response was not anger at a tall building but a correction of human hubris. The scattering was not punishment for construction. It was the restoration of the natural order that humanity was trying to override.
1. And all the earth was of one language and one speech.
2. And it was in their migrations at the beginning, that they found a plain in the land of Babel; and dwelt there.
3. And they said, a man to his companion, Come, let us cast bricks and bake them in the fire. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4. And they said, Come, let us build a city, and a tower, the bead of it coming to the pinnacle of the heavens. And we will make to us a name, lest we be dispersed upon the face of all the earth.
5. And the Lord was revealed to punish the work of the city and the tower which the sons of men had builded.
6. And the Lord said, Behold, the people are one and the language one with all of them: and this is what they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them of what they imagine to do.
7. Come, We will be manifest, and will confuse their language there, that a man shall not bear the language of his companion.
8. And the Lord dispersed them from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they were restrained from building the city.
9. Therefore the name of it is called Confusion, because the Lord there confused the tongue of all the earth, and from thence the Lord dispersed them upon the face of all the earth.
10. These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a son of a hundred years, and he begat Arphaxad, two years after the deluge.
11. And Shem lived after he had begotten Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12. And Arphaxad lived thirty and five years, and begat Shelach.
13. And Arphaxad lived after he had begotten Shelach four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
14. And Shelach lived thirty years, and begat Eber.
15. And Shelach lived after he had begotten Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16. And Eber lived thirty and four years, and begat Peleg.
17. And Eber lived after he had begotten Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu.
19. And Peleg lived after he had begotten Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20. And Reu lived thirty and two years, and begat Serug.
21. And Reu lived after he had begotten Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nachor.
23. And Serug lived after he had begotten Nachor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24. And Nachor lived twenty and nine years, and begat Terach.
25. And Nachor lived after he had begotten Terach a hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26. And Terach lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nachor, and Haran.
27. And these are the generations of Terach. Terach begat Abram, Nachor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28. And Haran died before Terach his father in the land of his nativity, in Ura of the Kasdaee.
29. And Abram and Nachor took to them wives: the name of the wife of Abram, Sara; and the name of the wife of Nachor, Milcha, daughter of Haran the father of Milcha and the father of Yiska.
30. And Sara was barren, she had no child.
31. And Terach took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, the son of his son, and Sara his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and went forth with them from Ura of the Kasdaee to go to the land of Kenaan. And they came to Charan, and dwelt there.
32. And the days of Terach were two hundred and five years, and Terach died in Charan.
