A company in Israel owned by the Taub family, Shefa, has just received permission from the Israeli government to begin selling gems it has discovered near the northern city of Haifal, Fox News reports.

The range of gems includes sapphire, zircon, ruby, ilmenite, garnet, rutile, hibonite, and spinel.

The sapphires are particularly rare because they contain a mineral, carmeltazite, that many believed was only found in space. The Carmel Sapphire, which is sky blue and gray in color, was named Mineral of the Year in 2018 by the International Mineralogical Association.

“They were the ones to discover that this gem is a corundum with inclusions inside which are minerals that do not exist anywhere else in the world,” company president, Shalem-Taub, said. “The scientists actually said that it was like a scientific proof of the uniqueness of the land itself.”

But what makes the story even more amazing is that over the years, people had repeatedly said that there were no gems to be found in Israel.

But the Taub family believed there was because verses in the Bible, which specifically mention sapphires, seemed to suggest there were:

“… Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And I will lay your foundations with sapphires.
¹² Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.” (Isaiah 54:11-12 NASV)

READ: Bible comes to life as precious gems discovered for first time in Israel