Genesis 11

¹And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words,

²and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there;

³and they say each one to his neighbour, 'Give help, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly:' and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar.

⁴And they say, 'Give help, let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.'

⁵And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded;

⁶and Jehovah saith, 'Lo, the people [is] one, and one pronunciation [is] to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do.

⁷Give help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.'

⁸And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city;

⁹therefore hath [one] called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth.

¹⁰These [are] births of Shem: Shem [is] a son of an hundred years, and begetteth Arphaxad two years after the deluge.

¹¹And Shem liveth after his begetting Arphaxad five hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.