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• The origins of Babylon, therefore, go right back to Genesis chapter 10. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, which we looked at in the previous lesson, the Babylonian Empire rose to even greater heights and powers. Just as Aramaic was spoken by the Assyrians, so too, the Babylonians also spoke Aramaic. In fact, large portions of the books of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, because it was the official language of both the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires.
• But we also find more about Babel, or Babylon, in Genesis chapter 11. After the flood, when God destroyed every living creature from off the face of the earth because they had become corrupt, only Noah and his family were saved. But mankind soon returned to their evil ways, and in Genesis chapter 11, they rebelled further by building an enormous tower - the Tower of Babel - probably intended to be so immense that it would never be destroyed if God sent a flood again, and also so high that it would reach into heaven and challenge God, as a further rebellion.