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."

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 t