ENT, a verse by verse anthology of bible commentary, mainly from brethren sources. The whole work is available free of charge as part of the OnLine Bible. Download freely from OnLine Bible North America. ENT is listed under commentary downloads.

"The whole earth was of one language". Genesis 11.1  We now have important

historical evidence as to exactly what was meant by the sentence,

“The entire land had one language and a common speech.” This may not

refer to primal humanity before the division of languages. In fact in

the previous chapter the Torah has already stated, “From these the

maritime peoples spread out into their lands in their clans within

their nations, each with its own language” Gen 10:5. The reference 

seems to be to the imperial practice of the neoAssyrians, of imposing their

own language on the peoples they conquered. One inscription of the

time records that Ashurbanipal II “made the totality of all peoples

speak one speech.” A cylinder inscription of Sargon II says,

“Populations of the four quarters of the world with strange tongues

and incompatible speech… whom I had taken as booty at the command

of Ashur my lord by the might of my sceptre, I caused to accept a

single voice.” The neo-Assyrians asserted their supremacy by

insisting that their language was the only one to be used by the

nations and populations they had defeated. On this reading, Babel is

a critique of imperialism.

from Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation