«The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with smooth stones; The sycamores have been cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.»

9:10

«In 1947 a Bedouin goatherd lost a goat and climbed thee side of a mountain to look for it. The boy entered a cave – today the cave is known worldwide among archeologists as Cave Number One. What the boy found in the cave – probably stumbled upon in the dark – were broken clay jars that contained five sheepskin scrolls. Four of the scrolls were written in Hebrew; one in Arameic. More scrolls were subsequently found by other Bedouin and by scholars in caves nearby. The discovered scrolls – including a complete copy of the Book of Isaiah – are the oldest known manuscript copies of books of the Bible.»

The god of the desert:
Jerusalem and the ecology of monotheism
by Richard Rodriguez
Harper’s Magazine January 2008