Genesis 11:1-9 ▼

1 The whole world had the same language and the same words.

2 When they were migrating from the east, they came to a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”

5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built.

6 Then the LORD said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach.

7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one will understand the speech of another.

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. From there the LORD scattered them over all the earth.