Genesis 10 describes people who are already divided by language, tribe, and land. Genesis 11, however, says that people were of one language and not yet divided. Are these passages in conflict? No. Let’s take a look:
- Languages Separated
- Genesis 10:5, “From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.”
- Languages Not Separated
- Genesis 11:1, “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.”
We see that the first verse says languages had been separated and the second verse says that they were not. So, which is it? Is there a contradiction? No there isn’t. Moses is telling us who came out of the ark in Gen. 9:18 (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) and that they had children (Gen. 10:1-5,32). He said that it is from these offspring of Shem, Ham, and Japheth that all the different people and languages came (Gen. 10:5). It is a recap of what happened after the people of earth spread later on after the Tower of Babel which is what Gen. 11:1 ends up dealing with.
