GOD'S WORD Translation GW
New International Version NIV
1 The whole world had one language with a common vocabulary.
1
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 As people moved toward the east, they found a plain in Shinar [Babylonia] and settled there.
2
As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to one another, "Let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used bricks as stones and tar as mortar.
3
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, "Let's build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the sky. Let's make a name for ourselves so that we won't become scattered all over the face of the earth."
4
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 that the descendants of Adam were building.
5
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.
6 The LORD said, "They are one people with one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do! Now nothing they plan to do will be too difficult for them.
6
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 Let us go down there and mix up their language so that they won't understand each other."
7
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the LORD scattered them all over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city.
8
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 This is why it was named Babel, because there the LORD turned the language of the whole earth into babble. From that place the LORD scattered them all over the face of the earth.
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.
GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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.