Leaving the east and building the tower
Let us think of all those on earth, then, as using one divine language; and for as long as they are in harmony with one another, let them be kept in that divine language. And let them remain unmoved from “the east” so long as their minds are set on the things of the light, and of the radiance that comes from “eternal light” (Wisdom of Solomon 7:26). And when these move themselves “from the east,” setting their minds on things foreign to “the east,” let them find “a plain in the land of Shinar” (Genesis 11:2), a name which means “shaking out of teeth,” as a symbol that they lose the things by which they are fed; and let them settle there.
Then, wishing to gather together the things of matter, and to fasten to heaven what by nature cannot be fastened to it, so that by material things they may plot against things that are immaterial, let them say: “Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire” (Genesis 11:3). So then, as they harden and make solid what is of clay and of matter, and want to make the brick into stone and the clay into bitumen (Genesis 11:3), and by these means to build “a city and a tower whose top,” as far as their own notion goes, “shall reach to heaven” (Genesis 11:4), in the manner of the heights that are lifted up “against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), let them be handed over, each of them, to angels: angels harsher in a greater or lesser degree, and of one kind or another, in proportion to the movement “from the east” that has taken place in them to a greater or lesser degree, and in proportion to their making bricks into stones and clay into bitumen, and to their building from these, until they pay the penalty for what they have dared.
And let them be led, each of them, by the angels who implanted in them their own language, to the parts of the earth according to what each deserves: some, let us say, to a scorching land, others to a land that punishes those who live in it by its cold; some to a land harder to farm, others to one less so; some to a land full of wild beasts, others to one with fewer of them.
Greek
Νοείσθωσαν τοίνυν πάντες οἱ ἐπὶ γῆς μιᾷ τινι διαλέκτῳ θείᾳ χρώμενοι, καὶ ὅσον γε συμφωνοῦσι πρὸς ἀλλήλους τηρείσθωσαν ἐν τῇ θείᾳ διαλέκτῳ· καὶ ἔστωσαν ἀκίνητοι „τῶν ἀνατολῶν.“ ἐς ὅσον εἰσὶ τὰ τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ τοῦ ἀπὸ „φωτὸς ἀϊδίου“ ἀπαυγάσματος φρονοῦντες. καὶ οὗτοι, ἐπὰν κινήσωσιν „ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνατολῶν“ ἑαυτοὺς ἀλλότρια „ἀνατολῶν“ φρονοῦντες, εὑρισκέτωσαν „πεδίον ἐν γῇ Σενναὰρ,“ ὅπερ ἑρμηνεύεται ὀδόντων ἐκτιναγμὸς κατὰ σύμβολον τοῦ ἀπολλύναι αὐτοὺς τὰ δι᾿ ὧν τρέφονται, καὶ κατοικείτωσαν ἐκεῖ. εἶτα τὰ τῆς ὕλης συναγαγεῖν θέλοντες καὶ κολλᾶν τὰ μὴ πεφυκότα κολλᾶσθαι οὐρανῷ, ἵνα διὰ τῶν ὑλικῶν ἐπιβουλεύσωσι τοῖς ἀΰλοις, λεγέτωσαν· „δεῦτε πλινθεύσωμεν πλίνθους καὶ ὀπτήσωμεν αὐτὰς πυρί.“ ὡς οὖν κρατύνοντες καὶ πηγνύντες τὰ πήλινα καὶ ὑλικὰ καὶ τὴν πλίνθον λίθον ποιεῖν θέλοντες καὶ τὸν πηλὸν ἄσφαλτον καὶ διὰ τούτων οἰκοδομεῖν „πόλιν καὶ πύργον, οὗ“ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῇ ὑπολήψει αὐτῶν „ἔσται ἡ κεφαλὴ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ“ κατὰ τὰ ὑπεραιρόμενα ὑψώματα κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ , παραδιδόσθωσαν ἕκαστος κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς „ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν“ κινήσεως, ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἢ ἐπ᾿ ἔλαττον αὐτοῖς γεγενημένης, καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς κατασκευῆς τῶν πλίνθων εἰς λίθους καὶ τοῦ πηλοῦ εἰς ἄσφαλτον καὶ τῆς ἐκ τούτων οἰκοδομῆς ἀγγέλοις, ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἢ ἐπ᾿ ἔλαττον χαλεπωτέροις καὶ τοιοῖσδε ἢ τοιοῖσδε, ἕως τίσωσι δίκας ἐφ᾿ οἷς τετολμήκασι· καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀγέσθωσαν ἕκαστος τῶν ἐμποιησάντων τὴν οἰκείαν ἑαυτοῖς διάλεκτον ἐπὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς γῆς κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀξίαν, οἵδε μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν φέρ᾿ εἰπεῖν καυσώδη χώραν ἄλλοι δ᾿ ἐπὶ τὴν διὰ τὸ κατεψῦχθαι κολάζουσαν τοὺς ἐνοικοῦντας, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν δυσγεωργητοτέραν ἄλλοι δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν ἔλαττον τοιαύτην, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν πεπληρωμένην θηρίων οἱ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν ἔλαττον ἔχουσαν αὐτά.