Noah

They said, “Come, let us build a city, with a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.”

11:4

No story or literary parallel similar to that of the Tower of Babel recorded in this parsha is to be found in the whole of ancient Babylonian and Near East literature, as far as is known in modern research. But this lack of parallels to the Biblical account is no cause for surprise. It was impossible for such parallels to be found among neighboring peoples since the narrative essentially represents a protest against the outlook and ideas of these people…we have here a satire on what appeared to be a thing of beauty and glory in the eyes of the Babylonians.

Cassuto (20^th Century)

We must revise our opinion of why the people were punished, and accept that their principal sin was in not fulfilling God’s basic directive to be fruitful and multiply and to populate the whole earth, not just a small valley. Their declared objective had been not to scatter. The fact that God forcefully scattered them afterwards shows that their sin must have been their failure to do so voluntarily.

Rashba’am (12^th Century)

The sin of the generation of Babel was similar to that of Adam and Cain and his descendants. With the increase of creature comforts and leisure time, they became dissatisfied with the natural bounty provided by God and became interested in improving human techniques, in building cities, in leaving their agricultural life and becoming urbanized, and developing a highly organized political and social life, imagining this was the goal of mankind…when they engaged in building the city and tower…they forsook their universal brotherhood and established private property, through barter and monopolization prompted by their covetousness…

Abravanel (15^th Century)

That generation, being united by one common language and sharing the same ideas become unanimously convinced that the aim of their existence was a political society. Their sin was not in trying to achieve this but in regarding it as an end in itself rather than as a means to a still greater end – spiritual well-being.

Akedat Yitzchak (15^th Century)

The story of the building of the Tower of Babel has a timeless application. Not only in ancient times and in one particular generation has man striven to build a tower with its top in the heaven, but in every age whenever technical achievements reach new heights of perfection we witness a repetition of that which is depicted in the Midrash: If a man fell down and died, no attention was paid to him, but if one brick fell down, they would sit and weep and say: Woe betide us, when will another one be hauled up in its place?

Nechama Leibovitz (20^th Century)