And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelled there. And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; or else we will be scattered across the face of the whole earth.’ And Adonai came down to see the city and the tower, which the people built. And Adonai said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withheld from them, whatever they want to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand each other's speech.’ So Adonai scattered them abroad from upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because that is where Adonai confounded the language of all the earth; and from there Adonai scattered them across the face of all the earth.

As they journeyed east: Rabbi Elazer b. Rabbi Shimon said: They journeyed from kedem, ​they took themselves away from the first of the world.