Gen 11:1-9 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. 2 It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down. 3 They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and fire them well." They used brick for stone and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth." 5 GOD came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built. 6 GOD took one look and said, "One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they'll come up with next — they'll stop at nothing! 7 Come, we'll go down and garble their speech so they won't understand each other." 8 Then GOD scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. 9 That's how it came to be called Babel, because there GOD turned their language into "babble." From there GOD scattered them all over the world.