Scripture Text (NRSV)
11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
11:2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the
land of Shinar and settled there.
11:3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn
them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for
mortar.
11:4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower
with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole
earth."
11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals
had built.
11:6 And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all
one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do;
nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
11:7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that
they will not understand one another's speech."
11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all
the earth, and they left off building the city.
11:9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused
the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them
abroad over the face of all the earth.
