New International Version

Genesis 11:1-4 New International Version (NIV)

1. Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”