Chapter IX contains the story of the tower of Babel.
The story recounts the reason for building the tower and what the people's intentions were in building it. The shear size of the tower
is conveyed (it took 3 days to walk the circumference).
At one point in the building of the tower the builders shot arrows into heaven and they returned with blood
on them so the people believed they had killed the occupants of heaven. The story unfolds in verse 21 and following.
Chapter
Verse
Text
IX
21
And all the princes of Nimrod and his great men took counsel together;
Phut, Mitzraim, Cush and Canaan with their families, and they said to each other, Come
let us build ourselves a city and in it a strong tower, and its top reaching heaven,
and we will make ourselves famed, so that we may reign upon the whole world, in order
that the evil of our enemies may cease from us, that we may reign mightily over them, and
that we may not become scattered over the earth on account of their wars.
. . .
25
And the building of the tower was unto them a transgression and a sin,
and they began to build it, and whilst they were building against the Lord
God of heaven, they imagined in their hearts to war against him and to ascend into heaven.
26
And all these people and all the families divided themselves in three
parts; the first said We will ascend into heaven and fight against him; the second said,
We will ascend to heaven and place our own gods there and serve them; and the third part
said, We will ascend to heaven and smite him with bows and spears; and God knew all their
works and all their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were building.
27
And when they were building they built themselves a great city and a very
high and strong tower; and on account of its height the mortar and bricks did not reach the
builders in their ascent to it, until those who went up had completed a full year, and after
that, they reached to the builders and gave them the mortar and the bricks; thus was it
done daily.
. . .
29
And the Lord knew their thoughts, and it came to pass when they were
building they cast the arrows toward the heavens, and all the arrows fell upon them filled
with blood, and when they saw them they said to each other, Surely we have slain all
those that are in heaven.
. . .
35
And the Lord smote the three divisions that were there, and he punished
them according to their works and designs; those who said, We will ascend to heaven and
serve our gods, became like apes and elephants; and those who said, We will smite the
heaven with arrows, the Lord killed them, one man through the hand of his neighbor; and
the third division of those who said, We will ascend to heaven and fight against him, the
Lord scattered them throughout the earth.
