The Tower of Babel

11 Now[fn] the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated[fn] from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to each other,[fn] “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.”[fn] And they had brick for stone and they had tar for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 Then[fn] Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that humankind[fn] was building. 6 And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people with one language,[fn] and this is only the beginning of what they will do.[fn] So[fn] now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand each other’s language.”[fn] 8 So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.