5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

6 The Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

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 on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there, the Lord scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.