Genesis 11:1-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as they migrated from the east,^[a] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick 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 heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ ⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ ⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused^[b] the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.