Before Peleg was born, the earth was one big continent. When you take a map with all the continents and cut out all the continents, then these continents will fit like a jiggle puzzle and make one big continent. The earth was one big continent, until God divided the earth. Why did God divide the earth through the biggest earthquake of all times?
Why was the earth divided?
After the flood, the whole earth had one language, and one speech. After the people journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land Shinar, and they dwelt there. The people said to each other: “let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” The people made a tower, but then God came down.
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 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 (Genesis 11: 1-9)
Confusion came, and the people couldn’t understand each other anymore. The unity was over, and from that moment, the Lord scattered them upon the whole face of the earth.
Peleg lived during the same time, when the city and tower of Babel was built. He was born about 100 years after the flood. And the building of the city and tower of Babel also took place about 100 years after the flood. In these days the earth was divided.
How was the earth divided?
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan (Genesis 10:25)
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother’s name was Joktan (1 Chronicles 1:19)
Eber gave his first son a name, that represented the current state of the earth and what took place in those days. When we look at the genealogy in Genesis 10:25 and 1 Chronicles 1:19, we see the reason, why Eber called his son Peleg. Peleg means earthquake.
Eber gave his first son a name, that represented, what happened on the earth, namely an enormous earthquake. Because of this enormous earthquake, the earth, which was one big continent, was divided into several continents.
The biggest earthquake of all times
This must have been the biggest earthquake of all times. Because never in history, has an earthquake been so powerful, that it affected the whole earth. The whole earth trembled and that one big continent became divided into several continents.
When God scattered the people upon the whole earth, at that moment, the biggest earthquake took place, that affected the whole earth. Not only were the languages divided, but God also divided the earth. The people were scattered, and every people group, had their own language, and their own place (country). So that the whole earth was populated.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
