1
Now the whole earth had one language and 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
Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4
And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
5
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6
And the Lord said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
7
Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."
8
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
9
Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
10
This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.
11
After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.