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SCOTT - How come in Genesis chapter 10 it says the people were divided into their different tongues but then Chapter 11, before the tower of Babel happened, is says they were all of one language?

JOEL - Here are the scriptures in question:

Genesis 10: 5
"By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations."

Then after that we read in the next chapter Genesis 11: 1, 7-9
"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

This might be confusing if a few things are not understood on how the Bible was put together. Sometimes events in the Bible are not always assembled in chronological order and Genesis Chapters 10 and 11 are examples of this.
Chapter 10 is not really a part of the Bible narative but mostly a genealogy of the lineage of Noah's sons and the divisions of nations according to their tongues(Gen 10: 5). Chapter 11 then goes back and explains to us how that division happened at the tower of Babel.(Gen 11: 7-9)

Another example of this is In Genesis 1:27 where it tells us that God created man:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Then later in Genesis 2:2 it says
"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So there it said He finished His work and rested.

But then later in Genesis 2:7 it reads:
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

So did God create a second man after He rested? No, it is just explainng in more detail how He created the first man Adam.

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