The Languages Confused

11 At this time the whole world spoke one language, and everyone used the same words. ² As people ·moved [migrated] ·from the east [or eastward; 2:8; 4:16], they found a plain in the land of ·Babylonia [^LShinar] and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Let’s make bricks and ·bake [burn; fire] them ·to make them hard [thoroughly; ^Cin ancient times builders used mudbrick].” So they used bricks instead of stones, and ·tar [bitumen] instead of mortar. ⁴ Then they said to each other, “Let’s build a city and a tower for ourselves, whose top will reach high into ·the sky [heaven; ^Ca ziggurat or stepped pyramid at whose top was a temple thought to be in heaven]. We will ·become famous [^Lmake for ourselves a reputation/name]. Then we will not be scattered over all the earth.”

⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the ·people [^Lsons of man] had built. ⁶ The Lord said, “Now, these people are ·united [^Lone], all speaking ·the same [^Lone] language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. ·They will be able to do anything they want [^LNothing they want to do will be impossible for them]. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language [^Lthere] so they will not be able to understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they ·stopped [ceased] building the city. ⁹ The place is called Babel [^Csounds like the Hebrew word for “confused”] since that is where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. So the Lord caused them to spread out from there over the whole world.