In Genesis 10 of the Bible we read
10:8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: why it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 10:11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
And in chapter 11:
11 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And 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. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Over the couple of millenia the place changed from Babel to Babylon, a place of very poor reputation for the Hebrews: Like the Captivity into Egypt they were sent many centuries later into the Captivity into Babylon In the New Testament John of Patmos wrote in the Book of Revelation using a guarded Babylon (rather than Rome). We read especially about the "the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." (Chapter 17)
Now what did Blake have to say about Babel?
In a letter dated july, 1803 Blake wrote among other things to his friend, Butts:
I have given in the background a building which may be supposed the ruin of a Part of Nimrods tower which I conjecture to have spread over many Countries for he ought to be reckond of the Giant brood
(E729)
As for the "Whore of Babylon":
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Babel
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