Commentaire sur La Genèse 11:8

ויפץ ה' אתם משם SO THE LORD SCATTERED THEM ABROAD FROM THENCE—In this world (Sanhedrin 107b). What they had said. (Genesis 11:4) “lest we be scattered abroad” really happened to them. This is what Solomon said, (Proverbs 10:24) “What the wicked fears will come upon him” (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 18).

'ויפץ ה, G’d did not scatter the people by physically depositing them in different parts of the earth. By mixing up their languages, the people themselves started moving away from one another, in accordance with their ability to understand one another, Seeing that they were unable to communicate with one another coherently, their building project had to be aborted at any rate. The dispersal process was gradual, as methods of transportation were severely limited. People moved predominantly north from Mesopotamia, rather than to the desert regions in the southern Arabian peninsula.

חדל, verwandt mit חתל: Wickelband anlegen, חתול: das Schienen, der die Bewegung hindernde Knochenverband (Jecheskiel 30. 21). Grundbedeutung also: Bewegung hemmen, einhalten, so auch חדל zunächst: das Unterlassen einer Tätigkeit. Sie hörten also auf, die Stadt zu bauen; aber den Zug, die Richtung, aus welcher der Turmbau entsprungen war, den nahmen die Menschen überall mit hin. Freilich nicht mehr eine Stadt und einen Turm für die Knechtung der ganzen Menschheit, aber einzelne Städte und Türmchen, von denen kleine Nimrode meinen, dass sie in den Himmel reichen. —