Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
World English Bible
Genesis 11:7
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓ - Modern English
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- F35 Family 35 New Testament Wilbur Pickering's Byzantine-priority New Testament, with text-critical commentary notes · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (3)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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How many gods are there?
Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and New Testament passages repeatedly assert strict monotheism, with YHWH alone and no other gods beside him. Genesis 1:26, 3:22, and 11:7 have God using first-person plural ('let us make,' 'one of us') and Psalm 82 has God judging in the assembly of gods.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Theology
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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How many languages were there before the Tower of Babel was built?
Genesis 11:1 declares that 'the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech' before God confounds speech at Babel. Genesis 10:5, 20, 31 — one chapter earlier — already describes the descendants of Noah as divided 'every one after his tongue' in multiple languages.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Numbers
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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Is God the author of confusion?
1 Corinthians 14:33 states flatly that God is not the author of confusion. But Genesis 11:7-9 has Yahweh deliberately confounding human language at Babel so the people will not understand one another, and 1 Corinthians 1:27 has God choosing foolish things specifically to confound the wise.
Critical scholarship: Usually considered reconciled.
Theology
More on this question
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Other verses examined for the same kind of question or claim
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
One of these tensions involves a difference in wording across manuscripts or translations. Examine the original language on Lemma →
Cite this page
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Genesis 11:7 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/genesis/11/7?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).