And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

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.

And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.