"I shall teach them a lesson," said Hashem. "From now on, everyone will speak a different language. When one asks for a hammer, the other will think he must pass a brick. And when someone asks for a brick, his neighbour will think he wants a saw."

So an enormous confusion of tongues arose. "What are you babbling?" one asked the other. But the other babbled something unintelligible back. Everyone began to quarrel with everyone. They screamed at each other terribly and began to fight. It became a fight of all against all.

There was no joy left in the tower-building. All the people left the building site. They moved to other lands, where nobody with a different language would disturb them. That is how the different peoples came to be, and the different countries. And that was Hashem's intention.

Do you remember — the mabul? Noach was saved. This story begins just after it.