When this great monument was first discovered in 1868, its value was of course not appreciated and no copy of the text was made. The Museum of Berlin heard of it and moved for its purchase. An employe of the French Consulate heard of the negotiations, and offered a large bribe for the possession of the stone. The Turkish officials then interfered. The superstitious Arabs, believing that the monument must have some magical value, broke it into a number of fragments and distributed the pieces as amulets, or charms. A French agent, however, industriously pursued these fragments and with the help of a squeeze which he had made, reconstructed the major portion of the writings. The ancient name of Jehovah occurring on this text was an additional delight to these students of antiquity. Certain small cities that Israel had wrested from Moab were returned to Mesha at the time of this rebellion. Jehoram, and Jehoshaphat, the kings of Judah, later battled against the increasing power of Moab and administered a crushing defeat to the Moabites sometime after the successful uprising that is recorded here in this text. Among the ostraca excavated at Samaria, were some that mentioned many of the historical personages of the Old Testament, which also enhanced their value in the eyes of archeologists. The later expedition to Samaria which was working in 1931, apparently reached the foundations of the first buildings of Omri. They have left a record stating, “No remains earlier than the building of Omri are to be found upon this site.” This being so, we cannot question the statement of the text that Omri was the original builder on the crest of the hill of Samaria, which fact is in itself of considerable importance to the subject of our present study. The question has been raised as to what the effect would have been on the problem of the integrity of the text of the Scripture if this site had proved to have been like the other regions excavated, and was occupied by many older and underlying ruins! The simple answer is that such a discovery was _not_ made; and the evidence that has been derived is of such nature that this portion of the sacred Book _must_ be accepted by the intelligent and informed scholar. These fragmentary events and references are of as much value as are the individual bricks that make up the mass of a wall or a building. One or two standing alone would be relatively unimportant, but when scores of such evidences are gathered into a composite unit, they offer a formidable and impressive structure of evidence that is extremely difficult to refute. Although it has been the custom to construct the critical argument against the integrity of God’s Word from imagined _minor_ errors in the text, so intrenched is critical dogmatism that nothing but a _major_ rebuttal will be heeded. Happily, a major structure may be erected from minor materials: and thus these _fragments_ serve their destined purpose. Plate 17