Relation to the nations list of Genesis 10

Genesis 10 has already named languages, lands, and nations, and has closed with the nations spreading out after the flood (10:5, 20, 31–32). 11:1 then speaks of one language and a common form of speech. The relation has been read in two main ways. One takes 11:1–9 as earlier in time than the spread of the nations, so that the confusion of language explains how the “languages” of chapter 10 arose. The other takes 11:1–9 as a thematic flashback that explains 10:5, 20, 25, and 31–32, including the naming of Peleg, “for in his days the earth was divided.” Calvin’s editor allows that the writer “goes back” to give a detailed account of events only slightly referred to. Keil ties the division of mankind to the days of Peleg. Driver and Skinner stress the tension: chapter 10 can be read as a natural migration, 11:1–9 as a judgment on ambition, and the Priestly notices of chapter 10 already speak of distinct languages. Skinner still holds that a collector of traditions could put the two in historical sequence. How “one language” in 11:1 sits with the languages of chapter 10 depends on which of these readings is taken. No view is adopted here. The notes on the nations’ spread and on Peleg are pointed to and are not treated again. The Hebrew verbal xrefs from 11:8–9 to 10:5, 9:19, and Deut 32:8, and the earlier xrefs from 10:10 to 11:2 and from 10:24–25 to 11:12–17, are not reversed here.