Names, Names, Names (W4)

(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. (2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” (5) The LORD came down to look at the city and tower that man had built, (6) and the LORD said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

And all the earth [kol ha-aretz] was of one language [safah ehat] and of one set of words [devarim ahadim]. And as they journeyed from the east they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there [sham]. And they said to one another, “Come let us make bricks [havah nilbena leveinim] and burn them hard (lit. “burn burnings”), and the brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar [ve-ha-hemar hayah lahem la-homer]. And they said, “Come let us build a city [havah nivneh - from the root bn,h — lanu ir] and a tower, with its top in the heavens, and we will make a name [shem] for ourselves, lest we scatter over the face of all the earth [pen nafutz al penei khol ha-aretz], And the Lord descended to see the city [ir] and the tower that humanity had built [banu benei ha-adam]. And the Lord said, “If as one nation [am ehad] and one language [ve-safah ehat] this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they propose to do will be out of their reach. Come let us descend [havah nereda] and confuse their language there [sham sefatam] so that they will not understand each other’s language [ish sefat re’ehu]. And the Lord scattered [va-yafetz| them from there over the face of all the earth [mi-sham al penei khol ha-aretz] and they ceased building [b,n,h] the city [ir]. Therefore, He called its name [shemah] Babel, because there [sham| the Lord confused the language of all the earth [sefat kol ha-aretz] and from there [mi-sham] the Lord scattered them [hefitzam] over the face of all the earth [al penei kol ha-aretz]

(6) Rabbi Phineas said:... If a man fell and died they paid no heed to him, but if a brick fell they sat down and wept, and said: Woe is us ! when will another one come in its stead?

(7) And Abraham, son of Terah, passed by, and saw them building the city and the tower, and he cursed them in the name of his God, as it is said, "Swallow up, O Lord, divide their language" (Ps. 55:9). But they rejected his words, like a stone cast upon the ground....

"TO ABRAHAM THE HEBREW (HA-IVRI) (Genesis 14:13)" Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nehemiah and Rabanan [taught that] Rabbi Yehudah said: the whole entire world was on one side (ever) and he was on the other side.

(5) ... And this serves to tell of the greatness of the Holy One of Blessing as when a person stamps several coins with one seal, they are all similar to each other. But the supreme Monarch of monarchs, the Holy One of Blessing, stamped all people with the seal of Adam the first and not one of them is similar to another....

(10) This is the line of Shem [lit. 'Name']. Shem was 100 years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the Flood.

These are the names [shemot] of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; with Jacob came each man and his household. Reuben Simon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. And all those who issued from Jacob were seventy, and Joseph was in Egypt. And Joseph died and all his brothers, and all of that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful [p-r-h] and they and they swarmed [sh-r-tz] and they increased [r-v-h] and became very mighty, and the earth was filled [m-l-’] with them. A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his nation, “Behold the nation of the children of Israel is greater and mightier than we are. Come let us [havah] deal cleverly with them [lit. him] lest [pen] they [lit. he] increase, and it will be when war occurs that they [lit. he] will join our enemies in fighting us, and rise up from the land.” And they placed taskmasters over them [lit. him] to oppress them [lit. him] with their burdens; and they [lit. he] built [b-n-h] storage cities [arei (pl. of ir)] for Pharaoh, Pitom and Ramses. But the more they oppressed them [lit. him], the more they [lit. he] increased and spread out, so they came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with hard labor. And they embittered their lives with hard labor, with mortar [homer] and bricks [leveinim] and with all kinds of work in the field - they enforced all labor ruthlessly.

(15) The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew [ivriot] midwives, one of whom was named [shem] Shiphrah and the other was named [shem] Puah, (16) saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” (17) The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. (18) So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?” (19) The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.” (20) And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly.

(1) A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. (2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how good he was, she hid him for three months. (3) When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (4) And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. (5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. (6) When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.”