And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a
plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to
another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had
brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And 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.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children
of men builded. And 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. Go to, let us go
down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore 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.--Genesis xi, 1-9.