The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole world had one language(A) and a common speech. As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b](B) and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks(C) and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,(D) and tar(E) for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,(F) so that we may make a name(G) for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered(H) over the face of the whole earth.”(I)

But the Lord came down(J) to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language(K) they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us(L) go down(M) and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”(N)

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,(O) and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel[c](P)—because there the Lord confused the language(Q) of the whole world.(R) From there the Lord scattered(S) them over the face of the whole earth.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 11:2 Or from the east; or in the east
  2. Genesis 11:2 That is, Babylonia
  3. Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.

The Tower of Babylon

11 The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. As people migrated from the east,[a] they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.(A) They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt(B) for mortar.) And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.(C) Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

Then the Lord came down(D) to look over the city and the tower that the humans[b] were building. The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,(E) and they stopped building the city. Therefore it is called Babylon,[c][d](F) for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

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Footnotes

  1. 11:2 Or migrated eastward
  2. 11:5 Or the descendants of Adam
  3. 11:9 Hb Babel
  4. 11:9 In Hb, the name for “Babylon,” babel sounds like the word for “confuse,” balal.