1.109
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.
1.113
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 !
1.115
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."
note
1.120
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 them, both the inland and the maritime
countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited
the islands: and some of those nations do still retain the denominations
which were given them by their first founders; but some have lost them
also, and some have only admitted certain changes in them, that they might
be the more intelligible to the inhabitants. And they were the Greeks who
became the authors of such mutations. For when in after-ages they grew
potent, they claimed to themselves the glory of antiquity; giving names
to the nations that sounded well (in Greek) that they might be better understood
among themselves; and setting agreeable forms of government over them,
as if they were a people derived from themselves.
note
