The last two main topics of interest that we discussed during our Torah study on Tuesday was the earth divided and the Tower of Babel.
I’ve read this portions and verses many times but have never seen them this way before.
Gen 10:25, “And to Eber were born two sons: The name of the first was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and the name of his brother was Joktan.” Peleg’s name means, as defined by the Strongs: Division; Channel or canal; (to divide, split).
Gen 11:6 – 9 “and YHVH said, ‘Behold, they are one people with one language for all, and this they begin to do! And now, should it ot be withheld from them all they proposed to do? Come, let us descend and there confuse their language, that they shoud not understand one another’s language.” And YHVH dispersed them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because it was there that YHVH confused the language of the whole earth, and from there YHVH scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
What came to mean in reading Gen 10:25, is that prior to Peleg the “dry land” as defined in Gen 1:9-10, was all gathered in one area and the seas were basically around it. In other words what some call Pangea. During the lifetime of Peleg, the tower of Babel incident occured, and the peoples language was confounded and the people were then grouped according to the languages, (naturally) and then the land was dispersed, to further prevent them from seeking to build the city.