Translation
Then a man said to his fellow man “Come, let us make a city for ourselves and a tower and the head of it is in the heavens.
Go to footnote numberAnd let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the earth.”
Paraphrase
Then each man spoke to his neighbor (repeating the words of their great leader who had convinced them to say these things), “Come, let’s build a city for ourselves including a tower, the top of which will be the primary access from earth to heaven and heaven to earth. In this way we will become important and everyone on earth will need us. It will also keep us from being scattered [which would compromise our strength and capabilities].
Footnotes
1
The tower would be seen as an access point to the gods because it was a high place.
THE STATEMENTS THE PEOPLE MADE WERE RIDICULOUS
I think the intent here was to state the ridiculous without calling it ridiculous because the reader who understood what was going on would know right away that the people would not naturally say those things.
Our problem is that we live so far removed from that social context that it is not obviously ridiculous to us. I have only recently come to see it that way.
They would not have recommended building with bricks. They would not think using mortar was okay. It appears that many of them knew how to build using megalithic construction methods, and the rest had participated in some aspect of it or knew about it. Everyone knew that building with heavy stones, each cut for its specific place and positioned without the need for mortar, was longer-lasting and more impressive than the white bricks Nimrod was telling them to make.
They did not want to stay together. By nature, some of them wanted to split off and have the freedom to do their own thing. They were only staying together in one big mass out of fear of their ruthless leader – Nimrod. He was convincing, persuasive, but most of all, brutal. No one dared oppose him. So they repeated his ridiculous statements as they were commanded to do.
“HOW TALL WAS THE TOWER?” IS THE WRONG QUESTION
The key to understanding this story is to grasp the reality that the physical height of the tower did not matter very much, rather the purpose of the tower was to represent the best option for access to the gods.
The high place was thought to be what connects man to the gods and the place where the gods descend to the earth. It was the access point to heaven. This means that Nimrod was trying to control the people’s access to the gods.