(West Asian mythology)
According to Hebrew tradition, the iniquity and godlessness of Nimrod, King of Shinar, reached their climax in the building of the Tower of Babel. This cunning ruler had acquired world dominion through possession of the garments worn by Adam and Eve; these clothes made of skins were Yahweh' gifts to the ancestors of mankind, and they had a wonderful property. Animals recognized the authority of the person wearing them and in battle they always secured victory. The success of Nimrod led to his deification, and the people gave him unstinted worship, but the King remained unsatisfied. Therefore, he ordered the construction of a tower capable of delivering an assault on heaven. To forestall this plan Yahweh confounded the speech of Shinar. One man asked for mortar, and another handed him a brick; such misunderstanding soon caused strife, and the people split into hostile factions. So Yahweh dealt with the descendants of Noah. He reserved Hebrew for Israel–the language he had used at the creation of the world–and gave a different tongue to each of the other seventy nations.
In Genesis the myth is introduced to account for the break-up of the original unity of the human race and its dispersal into different nations, speaking different tongues. The name of the tower means confusion. Nimrod receives no mention here, though the prophet Micah calls Assyria ‘the land of Nimrod’. Moreover, there have come to light recently fragments of a Sumerian legend that attributes the end of the Golden Age to Ea' diversification of language.
