And the whole earth was of one
language, and of one 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
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, 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. And the LORD came down to
see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 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. Go to, let us go
down, and there confound their language, that they may 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. 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” (Genesis
11:1-9)
