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."

CHAPTER 5.

After What Manner The Posterity Of Noah Sent Out Colonies, And
Inhabited The Whole Earth.

1. After this they were dispersed abroad, on account of their
languages, and went out by colonies every where; and each colony
took possession of that land which they light upon, and unto
which God led them; so that the whole continent was filled with