Gen 11, 1-9 The LORD scattered them from there

Genesis 11

(Gen 11, 1-9) The LORD scattered them from there

[1] The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. [2] While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. [3] They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. [4] Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth." [5] LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. [6] Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. [7] Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says." [8] Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. [9] That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.

(CCC 58) The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal proclamation of the Gospel (Cf. Gen 9:16; Lk 21:24; DV 3). The Bible venerates several great figures among the Gentiles: Abel the just, the king-priest Melchisedek - a figure of Christ - and the upright "Noah, Daniel, and Job" (Cf. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3; Ezek 14:14). Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live according to the covenant of Noah, waiting for Christ to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (Jn 11:52). (CCC 59) In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house (Gen 12:1), and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8). (CCC 60) The people descended from Abraham would be the trustees of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church (Cf. Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52; 10:16). They would be the root on to which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe (Cf. Rom 11:17-18, 24).