CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 
489 
have been adopted. If there were no more than nations or heads of 
nations, then the number would be seven for Japhet, four for Ham, 
and five for Shem ; but if there were as many as there W'ere families, 
which is the more probable opinion, their number cannot be certainly 
assigned. However, the Hebrews fancy there were seventy, because the 
descendants from the sons of Noah, enumerated Genesis x. were 
just so many. Allowing, then, the languages of the chief families to 
have been fundamentally different from each other, the sub-languages 
and dialects within each branch would probably have had a mutual 
affinity, greater or less, as they settled nearer or farther from each 
other. But whichever of these hypotheses is adopted, the primary 
object of the confusion at Babel was the separation and dispersion of 
mankind. 
As none of these, however, give a complete or satisfactory idea, 
either of the immediate cause or of the nature of this important event, 
others have been led to consider it in a different point of view. Agree- 
ing with the observation, that the meaning of the Hebrew word sha- 
'phan, is lip, and comparing various passages of sacred writ where* 
the phrase is used, they understand it as signifying religious service 
or confession; distinct horn leshan^ which denotes tongue or lan- 
guage. Keeping this in view, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their 
descendants at that time, confessed the same truth, and worshipped 
the same God in the same manner that Noah had done ; and we are 
told, that as they journeyed from the east; they found a plain, and 
dwelt there. It is said the word here translated plain, should have 
been rendered oak or grove, and that, when compared with the plain 
or oak mentioned in the Bth verse of the following chapter, the 1st 
of the eighteenth chapter, and 4th and 8th of the 35th chapter of 
Genesis, as well as with Judges vi. 12. and ix. 6, the oak or grove 
appears to have been a place where the presence of Jehovah w^as 
visible with his people. The reproofs of the j)rophets, also, seem to 
refer to a corniption of these places of patriardiai worship, when the 
people are spoken of as worshipping under every green tree. 
In building this tower, then, in the plain of Shinar, the builders 
made light of the oak or grove, and of him who appeared there ; for 
it was to be dedicated to the heavens, i. e. the heavenly bodies. This 
w'as the origin of all the ancient worship of Baal. It is further ob- 
served, that if the intention of the builders w as simply to erect a 
tower, the height of which was to be its chief excellency, they would 
never have chosen a plain for its foundation ; but considering them 
in this view% as joined together in apostacy from the God of heaven, 
we see why their speech was confounded, and their building stopped, 
and why they were scattered abroad through tlie earth. Their dis- 
persion was doubtless a part of the Divine plan ; for, upon the site of 
this tower, ancient Babylon, the figurative scene of much confusion 
and idolatry, was founded by one race ; another race was distinguish- 
ed for the purpose of founding Jerusalem, the figurative scene of 
order and peace ; and at Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii^;, 
this curse of the confusion of speech was remarkably counteracted.^^; 
when the apostles were heard by men of every nation, speaking in thei^- 
own tongue the wonderful works of God ; but the full effects of this|C 
3Q ' «« 
