Sunday, October 02, 2011

One Single Impression: Language

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Language

Tower of Babel
man's vainglory God's revenge
scattered them abroad
languages by the zillions
separated from their friends

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Poem Copyright
©2011 Jimmiehov
All Rights Reserved

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Prompt word, Language, suggested by Sandra at If: La Palabra Diminuta
Find more poems at
One Single Impression using "Language" as prompt

Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9 NIV Bible:
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower they were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Footnotes:
a.Genesis 11:2 Or from the east; or in the east
b.Genesis 11:2 That is, Babylonia
c.Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.

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11 Comments:

At Sunday, October 02, 2011 12:23:00 AM, Blogger Harshad Mehta said...

Very Interesting.

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 1:07:00 AM, Anonymous shail said...

That's very interesting :)

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 2:14:00 AM, Blogger Nanka said...

I like the way God took revenge on mans vanity!! Looks like we will always suffer now due to all the misunderstandings!!

Thank you Jim for the read and footnotes from the Bible!!

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 2:59:00 AM, Blogger anthonynorth said...

Nice one. Don't we need many languages to provide many cultures to allow diversity?

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 3:15:00 AM, Blogger Amity said...

The thought behind your poem is Biblical...the story about being scattered abroad and having multifarious language...:)

Hey Jim, its been a long while that I stopped writing for OSI...but I wish to be back for good!

Do drop by!

Amity

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 10:30:00 AM, Blogger Ramesh Sood said...

This is indeed well said..

 
At Sunday, October 02, 2011 2:23:00 PM, Blogger SandyCarlson said...

We've always talked too much--and perhaps said too little! Good one, Jim.

 
At Monday, October 03, 2011 9:50:00 PM, Blogger The Write Girl said...

What a lovely poem Jim about the Tower of Babel. It makes me wonder now what could have happened if the world spoke one language. Would we be more unified? Great poem here.

 
At Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:16:00 AM, Blogger Susie Clevenger said...

Great words...I wonder if we all spoke the same language what the world would be like...

 
At Wednesday, October 05, 2011 10:20:00 AM, Blogger Kathie Brown said...

Jim, I have always loved this story and you have encapsulated it in this poem!

 
At Sunday, October 09, 2011 7:32:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder about that...and about misunderstandings that brings language...

 

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