Babel

Reading the various translations of Babel made clear to me a few cultural references I didn't fully understand. It was interesting to see what details and phrases were deemed important by those transposing the text, along with the tone of the work as a whole. In terms of the actual story, it is an interesting way to explain the diversity of language and dispersal of people all over the world... in a purely metaphorical sense. Clearly it does not hold when compared to what we know about the evolution of speech and language. Some aspects of the story confuse me-- I have a hard time understanding God's attitude toward humans; if the building of the tower really was an offensive display of hubris and irreverence, seen as an attempt to be equal with the heavens, the realization that they could never build a tower high enough should be enough to put them in their place. I don't know why God acts almost as though this is a personal threat. He created them, he smited them, and he let them repopulate to exist once again by his own grace. This does not seem to warrant such a reaction, and contrasts the tone of other biblical stories in which God simply shakes his head and reminds us that humans have agency and once we have been informed of the path to salvation we accept that we will suffer the consequences of acting otherwise.