And the Lord said—within himself, and to himself (vide Genesis 11:8); expressive of the formation of a Divine resolution (cf. Genesis 6:7)—Behold, the people— עַס, from root signifying to bind together, expresses the idea of association; גּוֹי, from a root signifying to swell (Lange), to flow together (Gesenius), to gather together (Furst), conveys the notion of a confluxus hominum.
T. Lewis connects it with the sense of interiority, or exclusion, which is common in the Chaldee and Syriac—is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do. One race, one tongue, one purpose.
The words indicate unity of effort, as well as concentration of design, on the part of the builders, and a certain measure of success in the achievement of their work. And now nothing will be restrained from them.
Literally, there will not be cut off from them anything; οὐ κ ἐ κλει ì ψει ἀ π αὐ τῶ ν παì ντα (LXX.); non desistent a cogitationibus suis (Vulgate, Luther); i.e. nothing will prove too hard for their dating.
It can hardly imply that their impious design was on the eve of completion. Which they have imagined to do.