Genesis 11:2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
After the Flood the unbelieving portion of Noah's descendants separated themselves from the faithful worshipers of God and journeyed away from them toward the east until they came to Shinar. There they found a broad and fertile plain on the banks of the Euphrates, drawn by its beauty and richness, and chose it as their home to dwell together in one body. The division was deliberate, for those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law were annoyed by the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates and departed to centralize apart from them. Their settling there was disobedience to God's direction to disperse over the earth to replenish and subdue it, for they determined not to be scattered but to found a city and a kingdom that should embrace the whole earth. That dwelling became the seat of a united rebellion to build a tower reaching to heaven for safety from another flood and for self-exaltation and a name, a heaven-daring confederacy urged on by the first great rebel.
Journey to Shinar
Those who moved were Noah's descendants after the Flood, and more particularly the unbelieving part of them separating themselves from the faithful worshipers of God and traveling away from them. Their going was apostasy, a deliberate division as their numbers increased, when those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law left the worshipers of Jehovah.
Journeying from the east they found a broad, large plain in the land of Shinar on the banks of the river Euphrates. They chose it as their place to live together and dwelt there and made it their home. They were drawn by the beauty of the place and the fertility of the soil.
For a time all the descendants lived together among the mountains where the ark had rested. As their numbers increased, those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law felt constant annoyance from the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates. They therefore departed in a deliberate separation to centralize in Shinar.
The rebels were not of one mind in unbelief. Some denied God's existence or rejected Him and explained the Flood by natural causes and disbelieved His promise not to bring another flood. Others acknowledged that God had sent the Flood but rebelled against Him and resented His destruction of the antediluvians and His curse on the earth.
The setting belongs to the time when human longevity decreased after the Flood, with the nine generations before the Flood averaging 912 years and the nine generations after it averaging 332 years.
Rebellion and Tower Building
Their dwelling in Shinar was a deliberate centralization in disobedience to God's direction to disperse throughout the earth to replenish and subdue it, for they determined to keep their community united in one body, to avoid being scattered, and to found there a city and a monarchy or kingdom that should eventually embrace the whole earth. There they decided to build a city and in it a tower reaching unto heaven, meant to be the wonder of the world, of stupendous height and so massive that nothing could sweep it away and so high that no flood could rise to its top. It was to be carried higher than the flood waters had reached, to secure their own safety against another deluge, to ascend to the region of the clouds to ascertain the cause of the Flood, and to make themselves independent of God, refusing to trust any refuge like the boat God had provided in the ark. The undertaking was for self-exaltation and the pride of its projectors and not for the glory of God, to exalt themselves and make a name in defiance of God.
The settlement was a confederacy born of rebellion against God to thwart His purposes, a heaven-daring undertaking in which the great majority were fully united, heeding not God's counsel but striving to carry out their own purposes. Determined men inspired and urged on by the first great rebel would permit nothing to interfere with their plans or stop them in their evil course. Among them lived a few who feared God who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly and drawn into their schemes, yet they refused to join the confederacy and would not be deceived by wonderful representations and the grand outlook. For the sake of these loyal ones God delayed His judgments and gave the people time to reveal their true character.
Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and demoralizing the world by inaugurating a new religion. In it a mixture of religious ideas with erroneous theories, carried out and perfected, would close the door to peace, happiness, and security, direct minds from allegiance to the divine statutes so that the law of Jehovah would be ignored and forgotten, and substitute laws framed according to selfish hearts to carry out their purposes, though those statutes are holy, just, and good. They corrupted the sacrificial system first established with Adam after his fall and taught to his descendants, having no faith in the coming Redeemer, and sacrificed to gods of their own choosing instead of the God of heaven. Part of the partly finished tower was occupied as a dwelling for the builders while other splendidly furnished and adorned apartments were set apart for their idols, and the people rejoiced in their success and praised gods of silver and gold against the Ruler of heaven and earth. They offered animals to idols and believed lavish and more valuable offerings would please their gods and bring national prosperity and riches, even sacrificing human beings to senseless idols and turning future generations away from God toward idolatry, and the laws they made were cruel in the extreme because they were made by men whose hearts were not softened by divine grace.
Judgment and Scattering
The settling in Shinar led directly to the tower enterprise, which belonged to the first great apostasy after the Flood in which men sought to unite and exalt themselves in defiance of God, and God intervened to bring their plans to an end. He quenched their ambitious project by sending angels to confound their language and bring the purpose of the builders to nothing. Because the tower had reached a lofty height, workmen at the top could not communicate directly with those at the base, so men were stationed at different points to receive and pass on orders for material and directions for the work. In the confusion unneeded material was called for and directions were given that were often the reverse of those intended.
Confusion and dismay stopped all work and ended harmony and cooperation. The builders could not explain the strange misunderstandings, and they reproached one another in rage and disappointment. Their confederacy ended in strife and bloodshed. Lightnings from heaven as evidence of God's displeasure broke off the upper portion of the tower and cast it to the ground, to make men feel that there is a God who rules in the heavens. Human settlement in defiance of God thus ends in judgment, for men gain nothing in such movements but confusion, and God is able to confuse and multiply confusion to teach men that they are only men.
Their work was disrupted and they were scattered across the earth. Babel was founded at the time of that dispersion, and Nineveh was founded about that time. The confusion of human speech came as the result of sin, creating a barrier between people who could not understand one another.