Genesis 11:1-9
The Tower of Babel
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Genesis 11:1-9 · 9 verses
Read the passage
Genesis 11:1-9 · 9 verses
Genesis 11:1-9
1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. language: Heb. lip. speech: Heb. words
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. from...: or, eastward
3And 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. they said...: Heb. a man said to his neighbour burn...: Heb. burn them to a burning
4And 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.
5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6And 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.
7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9Therefore 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. Babel: that is, Confusion
After the flood the earth repopulates, and for a season humanity speaks a single language — one people, one tongue. They settle on the plain of Shinar and hatch an audacious plan: build a city, raise a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and make themselves a name. The ambition is not simply architectural — it is theological. They are reaching for heaven on their own terms, constructing their own security apart from God. What follows is one of the most compact and arresting divine interventions in all of Scripture: the LORD comes down, confounds their speech, and scatters them across the face of the earth. The place is called Babel — confusion.