BA'BEL, TOW'ER OF
After the flood, the world was repopulated by the offspring of a single family, speaking only one language. The existing diversity of tongues is accounted for (Gen. 11:1-9) by the story which relates how Noah's descendants, in the course of their wanderings, settled in the plain of Shinar, or Babylonia; and there, in addition to building a city, thought to construct a tower high enough to reach heaven, as a monument to their fame, and as a center of social cohesion and union. Upon learning of their ambitions (cf. Gen. 1:26; 3:22), the LORD (Yahweh) frustrated their plans by confounding their speech, making further concerted action on their part impossible. As a result, the name of the city was called Babel, and its builders were scattered over the face of the earth.