《聖經·創世紀》第11章中說，人類最早的時候都住在一個地方，講一種語言。他們決定造一座通天的塔，所有的人住在裡面，人類再也不會分散。上帝不同意，他將人類拆散到世界各地，讓人類講不同的語言，從此難於溝通。
因此，"巴別塔"就成了混亂和語言不通的代名詞，是《聖經》中最廣為人知的故事之一。
那時，天下人的口音，言語，都是一樣。And all the earth had one language and one tongue.
他們說，來吧，我們要建造一座城和一座塔，塔頂通天，為要傳揚我們的名，免得我們分散在全地上。
And they said, Come, let us make a town, and a tower whose top will go up as high as heaven; and let us make a great name for ourselves, so that we may not be wanderers over the face of the earth.
耶和華降臨， 要看看世人所建造的城和塔。
And the Lord came down to see the town and the tower which the children of men were building.
耶和華說， 看哪，他們成為一樣的人民，都是一樣的言語，如今既作起這事來，以後他們所要作的事就沒有不成就的了。
And the Lord said, See, they are all one people and have all one language; and this is only the start of what they may do: and now it will not be possible to keep them from any purpose of theirs.
我們下去，在那裡變亂他們的口音，使他們的言語彼此不通。
Come, let us go down and take away the sense of their language, so that they will not be able to make themselves clear to one another.
於是，耶和華使他們從那裡分散在全地上。他們就停工，不造那城了。
So the Lord God sent them away into every part of the earth: and they gave up building their town.
因為耶和華在那裡變亂天下人的言語，使眾人分散在全地上，所以那城名叫巴別（就是變亂的意思）。
So it was named Babel, because there the Lord took away the sense of all languages and from there the Lord sent them away over all the face of the earth.
1563年，法蘭德斯畫家Pieter Bruegel的油畫《巴別塔》。
1928年，荷蘭畫家埃舍爾（ESCHER）的《巴別塔》。
