Genesis 11:1-11:9

     Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves¹; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."² So the LORD scattered them abroad³ from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

^[1] To me, this is what it would sound like the story was about. "Making a name" for themselves, putting the tower top in the heavens.
^[2] Such an interesting, unexpected way of dealing with the issue. Shows that different languages were definitely thought as a significant impediment of work.
^[3] God scattered too - doesn't just confuse their speech.


Take-home: Using my values, I would have read this as an anti-pride story, about humans thinking they could do more than they should have. My study Bible has a radically different explanation - that they were pushing for homogeneity (one people, one language, not wanting to be scattered), while God wanted diversity. It points out the theme of "one" that is repeated, the desire not to be scattered, that making a name for oneself and building a tower aren't necessarily negative, and that God's solution is diversity and scattering, not humility. I'm not sure that it's the strongest argument, but I'm not sure mine is any stronger.