Shinar is named once in the Book of Mormon, in Nephi’s quotation of Isaiah, where it appears among the lands from which the Lord will recover the remnant of his people when he sets his hand “again the second time.” The list runs Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea (2 Nephi 21:11). The following verse describes the Lord raising an ensign for the nations and gathering the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth (2 Nephi 21:12).
Shinar corresponds to the region of Babylonia in ancient Near Eastern geography. In the biblical account it is the land where Nimrod established his kingdom and where the Tower of Babel was built, after which the languages were confounded and the people scattered.