Genesis 11:1-9

Contemporary English Version

The Tower of Babel

11 At first everyone spoke the same language, ² but after some of them moved from the east^[a] and settled in Babylonia,^{[b] 3-4} they said:

Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.

⁵ But when the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower, ⁶ he said:

These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. ⁷ Let's go down and confuse them! We'll make them speak different languages, and they won't be able to understand each other.

^8-9 So the people had to stop building the city, because the Lord confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That's how the city of Babel^[c] got its name.