Meaning division. The seed of division among mankind is sown here. After the flood God gave man authority to rule others that there might be peace among men (see note Gen. 9:61, par. 1), but Satan caused man to abuse his God-given authority to form nations that man may have his own dominion, thus denying God’s right and authority over man.
The forming of the nations in this chapter, which issued in Babel (Gen. 11), prefigures the forming of the divisions and denominations in Christianity, which will eventually consummate in Babylon the Great with her daughters (Rev. 17).