Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 11:8

"So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city." — Genesis 11:8 (ASV)

The Lord (Jehovah) scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. —The tendency of men, as the result of a growing diversity of language, was to separate, each tribe communicating only with those who spoke their own dialect; and so the Divine purpose of occupying the world was carried into effect, while the project of this ambitious knot of men to hold mankind together was frustrated, and the building of their tower ceased.