Universal Language, Babel, Confusion

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

2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land aof Shinar and 1settled there.

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

4 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, otherwise we cwill be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 aThe Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have 1athe same language. And this is what they began to do, and 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 1speech.”

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

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