Jerusalem is no match for Shechem in fertility or convenience of site. The whole plateau stands aloof, waterless, on the road to nowhere. There are none of the natural conditions of a great city.
And yet it was here that she arose who, more than Athens and more than Rome, taught the nations civic justice, and gave her name to the ideal city men are ever striving to build on earth, to the City of God that shall one day descend from heaven—the New Jerusalem. For her builder was not Nature nor the wisdom of men, but on that secluded and barren site, the Word of God, by her prophets, laid her eternal foundations in righteousness, and reared her walls in her people's faith in God.
—From "The Historical Geography of the Holy Land,"
