Genesis 11:1–9

Universal Language, Babel, Confusion

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

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

³They 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.

⁴They 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.”

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

⁶The 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 speech.”

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

⁹Therefore 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.