The Tower of Babel In this chapter men find a plain in Shinar, Babylonia, and decide to build a giant tower, to show their own greatness. This is when God confuses the language and scatters people all over the earth. They then stopped building the city. This is why is called Babel, which sounds like the Hebrew for confused . We also build our own personal towers. Today it is more common to show off our own greatness by building ourselves up through achievements, possessions, professions etc. It is important to remember that while there is nothing wrong in these things themselves, they cannot be where we find our own self worth and identity; that is Gods domain. Once any other item or activity replaces Gods position in our lives, then it has become an idol. Do you see a 'tower' being built in your life? The rest of this chapter is the line from Shem to Abram. More to come on Abram!