¹⁰ The beginning of his kingdom was ^[a]Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [in Babylonia].

Universal Language, Babel, Confusion

11 Now the whole earth ^[a]spoke one language and used the same words (vocabulary). ² And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.^{(A) 3} They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly [in a kiln, to harden and strengthen them].” So they used brick for stone [as building material], and they used tar (bitumen, asphalt) for mortar. ⁴ They said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the Lord instructed].”^{(B) 5} Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one [unified] people, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do [in rebellion against Me], and now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) go down and there confuse and mix up their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the surface of the entire earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore the name of the city was ^[b]Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth; and from that place the Lord scattered and dispersed them over the surface of all the earth.