Holman Christian Standard Bible CSB
New International Version NIV
1 At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.
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Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
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As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let us make oven-fired bricks." They had brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.
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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 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
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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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building.
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But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.
6 The Lord said, "If, as one people all having the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
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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 there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech."
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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 the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.
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So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 Therefore its name is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
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That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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