Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babel 1Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2As people moved eastward, Or from the east; or in the east they found a plain in Shinar That is, Babylonia and settled there. 3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why it was called Babel That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused. —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.