Genesis 11:1-9

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Tower of Babylon

11 At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.^{[a] 2} As people^[b] migrated from the east,^[c] they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{(A) 3} They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.^{(B) 4} And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.^(C) Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ Then the Lord came down^(D) to look over the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ 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. ⁷ Come, let Us go down there and confuse^[d] their language^[e] so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”^{[f] 8} So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth,^(E) and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name is called Babylon,^[g](F) for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.