Genesis 11:3-9

New International Version

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks^(A) and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,^(B) and tar^(C) for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,^(D) so that we may make a name^(E) for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered^(F) over the face of the whole earth.”^(G)

⁵ But the Lord came down^(H) to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language^(I) they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us^(J) go down^(K) and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”^(L)

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,^(M) and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel^[a](N)—because there the Lord confused the language^(O) of the whole world.^(P) From there the Lord scattered^(Q) them over the face of the whole earth.