They also said, "Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men had built. Then the Lord said: "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off building the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel [Confusion]; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

THE TOWER OF BABEL

Far in the eastern wild, begirt by sands,

A rugged pile, like some grim giant, stands:

Rude stones, that once, perchance, with beaming grace,
Had glowed in statues, strew its circling base;

Though crushed the halls that Time's dread secrets keep,
Still, stage on stage, the crumbling platforms sweep:
High on its brow a dark mass rears its form,
Defying ages, mocking fire and storm:

Struck by a thousand lightnings, still 'tis there,

As proud in ruin, haughty in despair.

O oldest fabric reared by hands of man!

Built ere Art's dawn on Europe's shores began!

Rome's moldering shrines, and Tadmor's columns gray, Beside yon mass, seem things of yesterday!

In breathless awe, in musing reverence, bow,
'Tis hoary Babel glooms before you now;

The tower at which the Almighty's shaft was hurled,
The mystery, fear, and wonder of the world!

-Nicholas Michell

DEEDS OF DARING AND DEVOTION

BALAAM

The Prophet Who Could Not Lie

PERSONS OF THE NARRATIVE

Balaam, a seer of the East

Balak, the king of Moab

Elders of Moab and of Midian, sent by Balak to Balaam

The angel of the Lord

Two servants of Balaam

PLACES

Pethor, on the Euphrates, home of Balaam; a Moabite city on the
banks of the Arnon; several places of worship in Moab

N

TIME

Near the close of Israel's wilderness journey

MOAB'S PANIC OVER ISRAEL

OW Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now shall this company lick up all that are round

about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field."

8

Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. He sent messengers therefore to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying: "Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: perhaps I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed."