Study Desk

Now the whole earth ^[a]used the same language and ^[b]the same words.

It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land ^(a)of Shinar and ^[c]settled there.

They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used ^(b)tar for mortar.

They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^(c)will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves ^(d)a name, otherwise we ^(e)will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

^(f)The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

The Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^[d](g)the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be ^[e]impossible for them.

Come, ^(h)let Us go down and there ⁽ⁱ⁾confuse their ^[f]language, so that they will not understand one another's ^[g]speech."

So the Lord ^(j)scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

Therefore its name was called ^[h](k)Babel, because there the Lord confused the ^[i]language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.