Kejadian 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ¹  Babel ²  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Yesaya 17:13

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ³ 

when he shouts at ⁴  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ⁵  before a strong gale.

[11:9]  ¹ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ² sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[17:13]  ³ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ⁴ tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.

[17:13]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”