Genesis 11:1-13

¹ Now the whole land had one language and used the same words.

² And as people set out from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³ And they said every man to his friend, “Come, let us make bricks, and bake them completely.” So they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, so we will not be scattered over the face of the whole land.”

⁵ And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

⁶ And the LORD said, “See, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the land, and they stopped building the city.

⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the land. And from there the LORD scattered them over the face of all the land. ¹⁰ These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old (two years after the flood) he fathered Arpachshad.

¹¹ And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.

¹³ And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

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The language barrier

The nations gathered together in a city and proposed a building project.  God’s expressed will was for them to scatter over the face of the whole earth.  They would not do that.  They wanted the security of unity and numbers. They wanted to accomplish something great for themselves. So, God purposely changed their language so that their differences would do what their unity would not.

LORD, give us a unity that honors you, not ourselves.