On the Confusion of Tongues 1

¹Enough has been said on these matters. The next question which demands our careful consideration is the confusion of tongues and the lessons of wisdom taught by Moses thereon. For he says as follows. ²“And all the earth was one lip and there was one voice to all. And it came to pass as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and dwelt there. And a man said to his neighbour, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick became as stone to them and the clay was asphalt to them. And they said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, whose head shall be unto heaven, and let us make our name before we are scattered abroad, on the face of all the earth.’ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men built. And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they have all one race and one lip, and they have begun to do this, and now nothing shall fail from them of all that they attempt to do. Come and let us go down and confuse their tongue there, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbour.’ And the Lord scattered them abroad thence on the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city and the tower. Therefore the name of the city was called ‘Confusion,’ because the Lord confounded there the lips of the whole earth, and the Lord scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:1–9).