Genesis 10:31-11:9

Christian Standard Bible

³¹ These are Shem’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

³² These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their family records, in their nations. The nations on earth spread out from these after the flood.^(A)

The Tower of Babylon

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

⁵ Then the Lord came down^(E) to look over the city and the tower that the humans^[b] 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’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,^(F) and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore it is called Babylon,^[c][d](G) for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.