And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech - literally, of one lip, and of the same words. Vitringa ('De Confus. Linguarum') considers this statement to be a preface or introduction to the following narrative, designed to intimate that the builders of Babel were, at the commencement of their enterprise, a united body, perfectly at one in their sentiments and aims. But this is a mistaken view of the verse, which, interpreted according to the natural meaning of the words, describes not a harmony of councils among a party, but an exact and entire community of speech among all the existing branches of mankind. It is a brief recapitulation-of which several instances have already occurred-a resumption, after the parenthetical chapter that preceded, of the thread of the narrative where it was broken at the end of Genesis 9:1-29.
The sacred historian, being about to enter on a new subject, takes a retrospective glance at the descent of The sacred historian, being about to enter on a new subject, takes a retrospective glance at the descent of mankind from a single family; and since in such circumstances it might have been reasonably concluded that, having a common origin, they would all speak the same language, he proceeds to explain the mystery of the diversity of tongues. Since the Spirit of God evidently designed in these opening chapters to throw light, by the record of a few simple facts, on the deepest problems relating to the primeval state of the world and of man, of which philosophy has not been able to give a satisfactory solution, an explanation is here furnished of the strange phenomenon of the almost countless varieties of articulate language; and we are led to see that though 'the confusion of tongues' was apparently a retrograde movement in human history, it was really a most important and admirable expedient, conducive, in the superintending providence of God, to ensure the diffusion of mankind throughout the world.