Genesis 11:1-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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.(A) 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire 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.”(B) 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.(C) 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.(D) 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”(E) 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.(F) 9 Therefore it was called Babel,[b] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.(G)
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Genesis 12:1-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Call of Abram
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.(A) 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.(B) 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[a](C)
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- 12.3 Or by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.