The face of the earth

For my Hebrew Bible class I have been reading about the Babel narrative from Genesis 11:1-9. Ellen van Wolde, in her article ‘The Earth Story as Presented by the Tower of Babel Narrative’ (included in The Earth Story in Genesis) suggests that the tower is not actually the main point of the story, and that the human beings who build it are only minor characters. It is not the people who are said to have one language in 11:1, but כָל־הָאָרֶץ (cal-haaretz) – ‘all the earth’. Van Wolde also points out that throughout Genesis 1-11 the earth is frequently described as having a face (including three times in the Babel narrative):

God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.’
(1:29)

…a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground…
(2:6)

… but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth.
(8:9a)

… Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying.
(8:13b)

‘… otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’
(11:4)

So [YHWH] scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
Therefore it was called Babel, because there [YHWH] confused the language of all the earth; and from there [YHWH] scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
(11:8-9)

On the other hand, the human beings in the Babel narrative are rarely named. The human beings are referred to as ‘they’ or ‘them’, except in 11:5 where they are referred to as בְנֵי הָאָדָם (b’ney haadam) – ‘children of humanity.’ Van Wolde refers to U. Cassuto’s suggestion that this section should not be referred to as ‘the Tower of Babel narrative’ but rather ‘The Story of the Generation of Division’. In the story God is not concerned with stopping the building of the tower, but with making sure that people continue to spread across the earth. Van Wolde suggests that human beings build the tower in order to leave the earth (entering the heavens), even though in Genesis 1:27-28 God had made them responsible for the earth. God confuses the languages so that human beings will keep spreading across all the earth and take responsibility for its care.