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 of the notice is confirmed by the excavated remains of Bab. houses and temples (ATLO$2$, 279)—4. With its top reaching to heaven] The expression is not hyperbolical (as Dt. 1$28$), but represents the serious purpose of the builders to raise their work to the height of the dwelling-place of the gods (Jub. x. 19, etc.).

The most conspicuous feature of a Bab. sanctuary was its zikkurat,—a huge pyramidal tower rising, often in 7 terraces, from the centre of the temple-area, and crowned with a shrine at the top (Her. i. 181 f.: see Jast. RBA, 615-22). These structures appear to have embodied a half-cosmical, half-religious symbolism: the 7 stories represented the 7 planetary deities as mediators between heaven and earth; the ascent of the tower was a meritorious approach to the gods; and the summit was regarded as the entrance to heaven (KAT$3$, 616 f.; ATLO$2$, 52 f., 281 f.). Hence it is probably something more than mere hyperbole when it is said of these zikkurats that the top was made to reach heaven (see p. 228 f. below); and, on the other hand, the resemblance between the language of the inscrs. and that of Genesis is too striking to be dismissed as accidental. That the tower of Gn. 11 is a Bab. zikkurat is obvious on every ground; and we may readily suppose that a faint echo of the religious ideas just spoken of is preserved in the legend; although to the purer faith of the Hebrews it savoured only of human pride and presumption.—The idea of storming heaven and making war on the gods, which is suggested by some late forms of the legend (cf. Hom. Od. xi. 313 ff.), is no doubt foreign to the passage.

4b. Lest we disperse] The tower was to be at once a symbol of the unity of the race, and a centre and rallying-point, visible all over the earth (IEz.). The idea is missed by GV and T$J$, which render 'ere we be dispersed.'

verbal use 29$21$ 30$1$ (both E), 47$15$, and pl. (47$16$, Dt. 1$18$ 32$3$, Jos. 18$4$. On the whole, the two uses are characteristic of J and E respectively; see Holz. Einl. 98 f.—] Ex. 5$7. 14$. So in Ass. labânu libittu (KIB, ii. 48, etc.), although libittu is used only of the unburned, sun-dried brick. See Nö. ZDMG, xxxvi. 181; Hoffmann, ZATW, ii. 70.—] dat. of product (Di.); = 'burnt mass' (cf. Dt. 29$22$, Jer. 51$25$).— (14$10$), Ex. 2$3$)] the native Heb. name for bitumen (see on 6$14$).—] (note the play on words) is strictly 'clay,' used in Palestine as mortar.—4. ] of contact, as in  (De.).——] 'acquire lasting renown'; cf. 2 Sa. 8$13$, Jer. 32$20$, Neh. 9$10$. The suggestion that here has the sense of 'monument,' though defended by De. Bud. (Urg. 375$2$), al. (cf. Sieg.-St. s.v.), has no sufficient justification in usage. In Is. 55$13$ 56$5$ (cf. 2 Sa. 18$18$), as well as the amended text of 2 Sa 8$13$