- 1) And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
- 2) 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.
- 3) And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
- 4) 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.
- 5) And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
- 6) 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.
- 7) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
- 8) So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
- 9) 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.
- Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.
- 3) And as I suppose that the first part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great tower, and whatsoever things transpired among the children of men until that time, is had among the Jews
- 5) But behold, I give not the full account, but a part of the account I give, from the tower down until they were destroyed.
- 33) Which Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the face of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered.
- The Tower of Babel, Ensign, Feb 2018
- Many interesting notes about the story.
- "Babel" - (Hebrew) confusion, (Akkadian) gate of God
Notes
If the idea proposed by Jerry D. Grover, Jr., that the Jaredites came from the Sumerian culture, is true, then the Tower of Babel would be a story about the history and origin of the Sumerians.
It is interesting to note that the Sumerian language was known for its extreme complexity. In addition, they had at least 15 different number systems utilizing base 60. There seems to be significant plausibility to the idea that their language was confounded in some very real way.
Cross-References