Bible Study Seattle

“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.”  Genesis 11:1

“From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language.”  Genesis 10:5

“These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages,”  Genesis 10:20

“These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages,”  Genesis 10:31

It may appear that chapter eleven’s unity of language is contradicted by chapter ten, but these two accounts are not necessarily sequential.  It’s likely that the first part of chapter eleven should fit sequentially in the middle of the description of Ham, Japheth, and Shem’s descendants.  In fact there is a strong hint when the Tower of Babel incident took place:

“Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided;”. Genesis 10:25

If the Earth was divided (by language and geography) in Peleg’s day, that was from 101 to 340 years after the flood.  Interestingly, this was not long before the Great Pyramid of Egypt was built.