<P> The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל ‬ ‎, Migdal Bavel) as told in Genesis 11: 1 - 9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages . </P> <P> According to the story, a united humanity in the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar (שִׁנְעָר ‬). There they agree to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven . God, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world . </P>

What does the story of the tower of babel mean