Genesis 11:1-9

The Tower of Babel

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

Cross References 7

  • 1. Genesis 10:10; Genesis 14:1, 9; Isaiah 11:11; Daniel 1:2; Zechariah 5:11
  • 2. Genesis 14:10; Exodus 2:3
  • 3. Deuteronomy 1:28
  • 4. Genesis 18:21
  • 5. Genesis 1:26; [Psalms 2:4]
  • 6. Genesis 10:25, 32; Luke 1:51
  • 7. Genesis 10:10

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.