Hebrew Names Version HNV
New International Version NIV
1 The whole eretz was of one language and of one speech.
1
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 It happened, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shin`ar; and they lived there.
2
As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said one to another, "Come, let's make brick, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar 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 They said, "Come, let's build us a city, and a tower, whose top reaches to the sky, and let's make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole eretz."
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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 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
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But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.
6 The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.
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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's go down, and there confuse their language, that they may 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 abroad from there on the surface of all the eretz. 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 the name of it was called Bavel, because the LORD confused the language of all the eretz, there. From there, the LORD scattered them abroad on the surface of all the eretz.
9
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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