Genesis 11:1–9

The Tower of Babel

¹Now the whole earth ¹had the same language and ²the same words.

²And it happened as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar and ¹settled there.

³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had ^atar for mortar.

⁴And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^awill reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves ^ba name, lest we ^cbe scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

^5aThen Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

⁶And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^1athe same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be ²impossible for them.

⁷“Come, ^alet Us go down and there ^bconfuse their ¹language, so that they will not understand one another’s ²language.”

⁸So Yahweh ^ascattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

⁹Therefore its name was called ^1aBabel, because there Yahweh confused the ²language of the whole earth; and from there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.