After the flood, the people of the earth all speak one language and live in one place. They settle in a plain called Shinar and decide to build a city with a tower that reaches the heavens — to make a name for themselves so they will not be scattered. They use baked bricks and tar, and the construction climbs higher and higher. God comes down to see it. "Nothing they imagine to do will be impossible for them," he says. And he scatters them, confusing their language so they cannot understand each other. The half-built tower is left behind. The city gets a new name: Babel — "confusion." Centuries later at Pentecost, God will reverse the scattering — many languages, one gospel.