1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick instead of stone and slime instead of mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of the man built. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one language; and they begin to do this, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. 7 Now, let us go down and there confound their language that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore the name of it was called Babel because there the LORD confounded the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.