New International Reader's Version NIRV
New International Version NIV
1 The whole world had only one language. All people spoke it.
1
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 They moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylonia. There they settled down.
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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's make bricks and bake them well." They used bricks instead of stones. They used tar to hold the bricks together.
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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 Then they said, "Come. Let's build a city for ourselves. Let's build a tower that reaches to the sky. We'll make a name for ourselves. Then we won't 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 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people 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, "They are one people. And all of them speak the same language. That is why they can do this. Now they will be able to do anything they plan to.
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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 and mix up their language. Then they will not understand each other."
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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 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 The LORD mixed up the language of the whole world there. That's why the city was named Babel. 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.
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Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.