John Calvin Commentary Genesis 11:5

"And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded." — Genesis 11:5 (ASV)

And the Lord came down. The remaining part of the history now follows, in which Moses teaches us with what ease the Lord could overturn their insane attempts and scatter abroad all their preparations. There is no doubt that they strenuously set about what they had presumptuously devised. But Moses first intimates that God, for a little while, seemed to take no notice of them, so that by suddenly breaking off their work at its commencement, through the confusion of their tongues, He might give the more decisive evidence of His judgment.

For He frequently bears with the wicked to such an extent that He not only allows them to contrive many nefarious things, as if He were unconcerned or taking repose, but even furthers their impious and perverse designs with encouraging success, so that He may at length cast them down to a lower depth.

The descent of God, which Moses here records, is spoken of in relation to human understanding rather than as a literal movement of God, who, as we know, does not move from place to place. But he intimates that God gradually, and as with a tardy step, appeared in the character of an Avenger. The Lord therefore descended that He might see; that is, He evidently showed that He was not ignorant of the attempt which the Babylonians were making.