8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.¹ 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was ^pBabel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in ^qthe land of Shinar.

The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in ^zthe land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, ^aand bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower ^bwith its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And ^cthe Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, 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, ^dlet us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So ^ethe Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called ^fBabel, because there the Lord confused¹ the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.