1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. |
2 As men moved eastward,1 11:2 Or from the east ; or in the east they found a plain in Shinar2 11:2 That is, Babylonia and settled there. |
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. |
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." |
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. |
6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. |
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." |
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. |
9 That is why it was called Babel3 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused . -because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. |