The story seems out of place at first reading, since it explains how people came to be dispersed throughout the earth just after ch. 10 has presented in detail the results of God’s plan for repopulation after the Flood (cf. 10:32). Source analysis makes the problem somewhat less severe, for ch. 10 is basically P’s version of replenishing the earth, while 11:1–9 is J’s rather different explanation. This still leaves the question why the final editor did not consider
Page 115