into heaven.
They began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. They built it, forty-three years were they building it. Its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height of a brick was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and the extent of one wall was thirteen times 600 feet and of the other thirty times 600 feet.
And all these people and all the families divided themselves in three parts. The first said, “We will ascend into heaven and fight against him;” the second said, “We will ascend to heaven and place our own gods there and serve them;” and the third part said, “We will ascend to heaven and strike him with bows and spears;” and God knew all their works and all their evil thoughts, and he saw the city and the tower which they were building.
And when they were building they built themselves a great city and a very high and strong tower; and on account of its height the mortar and bricks did not reach the builders in their ascent to it, until those who went up had completed a full year, and after that, they reached to the builders and gave them the mortar and the bricks; thus was it done daily. And behold these ascended and others descended the whole day; and if a brick should fall from their hands and get broken, they would all weep over it, and if a man fell and died, none of them would look at him.
And the Lord knew their thoughts, and it came to pass when they were building they cast the arrows toward the heavens, and all the arrows fell upon them filled with blood, and when they saw them they said to each other, “Certainly we have slain all those that are in heaven.” For this was from the Lord in order to cause them to err, and in order to destroy them from off the face of the earth.
And they built the tower and the city, and they did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed.
And the Lord our God said to the angels, “Look, they are one people, and they begin to do this, and now nothing will be withheld from them. Let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech, and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and they will not be in agreement together with one purpose until the Day of Judgment.”
And God said to the seventy angels who stood foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, “Come let us descend and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of his neighbor.” And they did so.
And from that day following, they forgot each man his neighbor’s tongue, and they could not understand to speak in one tongue, and when the builder took from the hands of his neighbor lime or stone which he did not order, the builder would cast it away and throw it upon his neighbor, that he would die. And they did so many days, and they killed many of them in this manner.
And the Lord struck the three divisions that were there, and he punished them according to their works and designs. Those who said, “We will ascend to heaven and serve our gods,” became like apes and elephants; and those who said, “We will strike the heaven with arrows,” the Lord killed them, one man through the hand of his neighbor; and the third division of those who said, “We will ascend to heaven and fight against him,” the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.
And those who were left amongst them, when they knew and understood the evil which was coming upon them, they turned away from the building, and they also became scattered upon the face of the whole earth. And they