In a previous post I touched upon the topic that I will address, without knowing some aspects I recently learned providing even more depth. The tower of Babel and the New Jerusalem are presented as antithetic parallels in the Book of Ether.
Which came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered. (Ether 1:33)
8 Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this ; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away.
9 And there shall be a heaven and a new earth; and they shall be like unto the old save the old have passed away, and all things have become new.
10 And then cometh the New Jerusalem; and blessed are they who dwell therein, for it is they whose garments are through the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who are numbered among the remnant of the seed of Joseph, who were of the house of Israel.
11 And then also cometh the of old; and the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the countries, and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father, Abraham (Ether 13)
Two things that I want to add to this:
- Babel is very similar to the Hebrew word, "balal", meaning confounding/confusing.
- "Babel" in the Hebrew Old Testament text is the same as "Babylon". They have just been translated differently
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there the of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord them upon the face of all the earth.
Ether and Genesis 11 follow the same pattern. But there is more. Considering the fact that Babel and Babylon are the same, we also recognize this theme in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. In the words of Biblical scholar, Jonathan Grossman
In Babylonian eyes, Babylon is invincible and eternal because it was founded by the gods, for their own purposes. In contrast, the biblical story quashes this notion and presents the city’s construction as the result of human action, with no divine corroboration; and many have interpreted the builders’ words, to ‘make a name for ourselves,’ as a kind of rebellion against God. . . . “Babylon is famously characterized as a political monolith: they oppress and dominate their subjects—their ‘language’ is enforced upon everyone. This portrait of Babylon is undermined by the biblical portrait of Babylon’s founding: rather than unite humanity under its own language and beliefs, Babylon is the source of universal dispersion and divergence.” (The Double Etymology of Babel in Genesis 11, ZAW 129 (2017): 366,374)
The Book of Mormon is essentially the story of two groups of people escaping Babel. The Book of Ether is about Jared, his brother and their families and friends escaping the tower of Babel and the confounding of their language. The rest of the Book of Mormon is concerned with Lehi, Ishmael and their families escaping the Babylonian captivity. Both groups are led to a promised land far from Babel, everything is set up for them to avoid being confounded. They prosper in the land for a while but they struggle to live up to the favor they have been shown and end up being "confounded" and scattered or destroyed. Instead of succeeding to establish a lasting righteous society, the righteous among these people looked forward to a future day when they would be "no more confounded".
This is Ether's perspective when he talks about a future New Jerusalem in the quote I shared at the beginning of this post. Nephi shares this same perspective.
And harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father; yea, they shall be among the house of Israel; and they shall be a people upon the forever; they shall be no more brought down into captivity; and the house of Israel shall no more be confounded. (1 Nephi 14:2)
And I did rehearse unto them the words of , who spake the of the Jews, or of the house of Israel; and after they were restored they should no more be confounded, neither should they be scattered again. And it came to pass that I did speak many words unto my brethren, that they were pacified and did themselves before the Lord. (1 Nephi 15:20)
7 And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the , yea, even upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be .
8 And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a among the , which shall be of great unto our seed; wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders.
9 And it shall also be of unto the Gentiles; and not only unto the Gentiles but all the , unto the making known of the of the Father of heaven unto Abraham, saying: In thy shall all the kindreds of the earth be ...
22 And the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded. (1 Nephi 22)
Confounded can have a variety of meanings in English and different Bible translations also use other words in the Tower of Babel story, like God "confused" the language rather than "confounded". However, confused is not found in the Book of Mormon at all. So in the sense that Nephi is using the word here, it seems likely to me that this is based on the Hebrew, balal. When we know where Nephi is coming from, it is also not hard to imagine that he uses this term as an allusion to the Babylonian captivity.
Nephi lived in Jerusalem as a child/youth and probably knew the threat that Babylon/Babel presented at the time. Because of his prophetic gifts and those of his father (see 1 Nephi 17:43 and 2 Nephi 1:4), he also knew that Jerusalem in fact had been destroyed. This destruction was another story of confounding/balal and scattering, just like the Tower of Babel. He also knew that this would eventually happen to his own seed (see for instance 1 Nephi 22:8 quoted above).
Nephi clearly identifies a repeating cycle of a covenant people followed by wickedness, confounding and scattering. Specifically, we have
- God covenanting with Noah and his seed after the flood (Genesis 9:9). But his seed built the Tower of Babel to "make a name for themselves", were confounded and scattered.
- God covenanting with Abraham and later with the people of Israel led by Moses. As Abraham's seed they would be a covenant people led to the promised land. But after many centuries in the promised land they had become "ripe in iniquity" (1 Nephi 17:35) and were scattered and destroyed by the Babylonians
- Nephi belonged to a group that was rescued from the Babylonian destruction and received another promised land as part of a covenant (2 Nephi 1:5). But he saw a vision where he learned that it would not last forever. His people would eventually suffer destruction and scattering as well.
This must surely be frustrating to Nephi. But just as surely, he must have found comfort in the fact that there would be an end to this cycle. In a future time, a remnant of the House of Israel would be established as a new covenant people to "no more be confounded". This choice of words is likely a reference to the Babel/Babylon factor that led to the previous failures. It is an expression of great hope for a future time when the cycle is broken and there will be no more Babel/balal. We live in this time. The new and everlasting covenant has been established, this time to stay. The gathering of Israel has started and there will be no more scattering and confounding on a global level. It is up to us to stay on the covenant path and learn from the past so it doesn't happen to us on a personal level either.