וַיֹּ֥אמֶר שְׁמוּאֵ֖ל מֶ֣ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר שָׁא֡וּל כִּֽי־רָאִיתִי֩ כִֽי־נָפַ֨ץ הָעָ֜ם מֵעָלַ֗י וְאַתָּה֙ לֹא־בָ֙אתָ֙ לְמוֹעֵ֣ד הַיָּמִ֔ים וּפְלִשְׁתִּ֖ים נֶאֱסָפִ֥ים מִכְמָֽשׂ׃
And Samuel said: ‘What hast thou done?’ And Saul said: ‘Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines assembled themselves together against Michmas;
Kitzur Ba'al HaTurim
"And they scattered" [Genesis 11:8] in the Masorah here and there: "And the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt." "And the people scattered from him" [1 Samuel 13:11], and our Sages of blessed memory said that the people of the Tower and the people of Egypt were both deserving of punishment, and some were scattered from the Tower and some from Egypt, and this is the meaning of "and the people scattered from him."...
Radak
שלשה...נפצה, the root of the word is נפץ, an intransitive verb appearing also in Samuel I 13,11 כי נפץ העם מעלי, “the people were leaving me.” The word is used in this sense also in respect of the people dispersing over the earth on the occasion of the tower of Babylon and its collapse.