1 At that time the whole world spoke just one language and used words with the same meaning. 2 As they moved east they discovered a plain in the land of Shinar so they settled there.
3 They said to one another, "Come on, let’s make some bricks and bake them with fire." (They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of cement).11:3. This was because in the Babylonian plain there was no stone to use for buildings. 4 Then they said, "Now let’s build a city for ourselves with a tower whose top reaches the heavens. That way we’ll gain a great reputation and we won’t end up being scattered all over the world."
5 But the Lord came down to take a look at the city and the tower that the people were building. 6 The Lord said, "Look! These people are united and they all speak one language. If this is what they can do now when they’re just getting started, nothing will be impossible for them when they all put their minds to it! 7 We need to go down and mix up their language and make it confused so they won’t be able to understand what they’re saying to one other."
8 The Lord sent them away from there and scattered them all over the world, and they gave up building the city. 9 That’s why it was called Babel,11:9. Babel sounds like the Hebre5 word for "confuse." because the Lord made the language of the world confused.