Genesis 11New International Version (NIV)
The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] 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.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Psalm 147

1
Praise the Lord.[a]

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

2
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
5
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
6
The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.

7
Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.

8
He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
9
He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.

10
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.