Genesis 11:4-9
New International Version
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,(A) so that we may make a name(B) for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered(C) over the face of the whole earth.”(D)
5 But the Lord came down(E) to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language(F) they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us(G) go down(H) and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”(I)
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,(J) and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[a](K)—because there the Lord confused the language(L) of the whole world.(M) From there the Lord scattered(N) them over the face of the whole earth.
Footnotes
- Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.
Genesis 11:4-9
King James Version
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
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