Genesis 11:1–9 also mirrors the attempt of humanity in the garden to achieve power independently of God. The attempt of the Babelites to transgress human limits is reminiscent of Eve’s ambition (3:5–6). As in the tower story, the divine plural also appears in the garden account (3:22), and both indicate the divine distress over the potential havoc that the new knowledge achieved by mankind may bring about (3:22; 11:6). Broadly speaking, the setting is the same since the garden’s Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (2:14) are in the same region as the “plain of Shinar” (11:2). Following the Ararat departure, the people migrated southeast to the lower Euphrates valley. Genesis 1–11 then has come full circle from “Eden” to “Babel,” both remembered for the expulsion of their residents.

The motivation for building a city was to make the builders a name (cf. Ps. 14:1). The object of this endeavor was to establish a center by which they might maintain their unity. God desired unity for humankind, but one that He created, not one founded on a social state.368 They wanted to “empower” themselves. Both motive and object were ungodly. God had instructed man to fill the earth (1:28), to spread over the whole planet.

It is important, however, that they are continuing the movement eastward. When Adam and Eve were cast out, a guard was set east of Eden (3:24); Cain was cast from God’s presence to the east (4:16); now after the Flood, the travelers move east.