Critics have sometimes argued that this verse implies a limited sky: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven".

However, the words "may reach" are an insertion of the King James Version. The reference is now recognized as meaning that the tower was to be dedicated unto heaven, not built to literally reach it. Even if it did carry the other meaning, it only reflects what men "said" at the time—not that their cosmological understanding was correct.