דברי הימים א, פרק א׳, פסוק י״ט

The naming of a child often serves as a living record of human history. The birth of Eber's firstborn son marks a profound turning point for humanity, captured permanently in the name he was given. He was called Peleg, a name rooted in the concept of division and separation [מצודת ציון], reflecting a monumental shift that occurred during his lifetime.

The primary approach among commentators understands this division as the geographic and cultural dispersion of the human race [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. During this era, the people of the world, who had previously been united, experienced a great scattering. They separated from one another, spreading across the globe and fracturing into distinct nations with different languages. This scattering also brought about a profound linguistic isolation [מלבי״ם]. Originally, all of humanity shared a single, unified tongue, which was the language of Eber. When the languages of the world were mixed and confused, this original language survived only within the family of Peleg, the ancestral line that would eventually lead to Abraham. In this light, the name Peleg signifies that the rest of humanity had broken away and separated from his family's linguistic heritage.

In stark contrast to the idea of a geographic or linguistic scattering, another perspective interprets this division as a fundamental biological change in human nature [רש״י]. Rather than the separation of nations, the historical shift during this period was a dramatic reduction in human life expectancy. While the earliest generations of humanity lived for over nine hundred years, this lifespan was halved during the time of Arpachshad to roughly four hundred years. During the days of Peleg, it was cut in half yet again, leaving human beings with a lifespan of merely two hundred years.