Tongues.
1. Now the sons of Noah were three,—Shem, Japhet, and Ham, born one
hundred years before the Deluge. These first of all descended from the
mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there; and
persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account
of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from the higher
places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they
first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies
abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not
raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of
the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were
so ill instructed that they did not obey God; for which reason they fell
into calamities, and were made sensible, by experience, of what sin they
had been guilty: for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God
admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining the
prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, but
supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful
condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this their
disobedience to the Divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore
ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided asunder, they
might the more easily be Oppressed.
2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of
God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of
great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as
if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was
their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually
changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men
from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on
his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a
mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high
for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on
God for destroying their forefathers!
3. Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of
Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they
built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree
negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands
employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but
the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that
thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it
really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar,
made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God
saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them
utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the
former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them
divers languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those
languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place
wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the
confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the
Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion. The Sibyl also makes mention
of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus:
"When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as
if they would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of
wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language;
and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon." But as to
the plan of Shinar, in the country of Babylonia, Hestiaeus mentions it,
when he says thus: "Such of the priests as were saved, took the sacred
vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shinar of Babylonia."