8 The Lord decreed judgment on Jacob, and it fell on Israel. 9 All the people were aware of it, the people of Ephraim and those living in Samaria. Yet with pride and an arrogant attitude, they said, 10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with chiseled stone; the sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” 11 Then the Lord provoked their adversaries to attack them, he stirred up their enemies— 12 Syria from the east, and the Philistines from the west; they gobbled up Israelite territory. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.

2 When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building.