Readings about building walls in the DSS

Some ancient advice from wall builders:

"The reader is warned against erecting a partition or wall in partnership with a divisive person, since the structure will be built with stones of wastefulness and the plaster that should serve to strengthen the construction will be weak and without substance. The wall or partition will not withstand a flow of water." from here via Paleojudaica.

This just goes to show that divisiveness is not a new phenomenon. 

Further in the above linked article:

"Elisha Qimron has shown that in fragments from three other Qumran sources, the individual who forgives monetary debts or who frees his slaves in the Jubilee year receives a promise from God that he, too, will be treated in kind, and that his debts – that is to say, his sins – will be forgiven.

"According to this approach, there is a clear connection between debt relief and atonement of sins. We still need to explain, however, how the sinners became captives, and what relationship exists between forgiving debts and sins on the one hand and freeing captives on the other. In a note that appears in his book, Anderson attempts to identify the creditor to whom the sinners are obligated, ultimately suggesting that it is Belial. According to this approach, the "owner of the debt" is none other than Belial."

As I continue to think about avarice as the controlling power for the other mortal sins of the world (and reflect that this is a folly: that the market should control greed), nonetheless money has been used for ages as a metaphor for the indebtedness of sin. So can economics trump racism? Somehow I think the power needed to effectively govern ourselves has to come from outside the powers of self-interest that generally hold sway over us.

Next question: ...
 [this is clear indication that Deuteronomy 32 is next]