In the Scriptures the word daughter is used in a variety of senses, some of which are unknown to our own language, or have only become known through familiarity with Scriptural forms of speech. Besides its usual and proper sense of—
A daughter sent or adopted, we find it used to designate.
A uterine sister, niece, or any female descendant (;;;;; ).
Women, as natives, residents, or professing the religion of certain places, as 'the daughter of Zion' (); 'daughters of the Philistines' (); 'daughter of a strange God' ().
Metaphorically, small towns are called daughters of neighboring large cities, to which they belonged, or from which they were derived, as 'Heshbon and all the daughters [Auth. Vers. ] thereof' (); so Tyre is called the daughter of Sidon (), as having been originally a colony from thence; and hence also the town of Abel is called 'a mother in Israel' (); and Gath is in one place (comp.; ) called Gath-Ammah, or Gath the mother town, to distinguish it from its own dependencies, or from another place called Gath. See other instances in;; , etc.
The people collectively of any place, the name of which is given; as 'the daughter (i.e. the people) of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee' (; see also;;;;; ).
Respecting the condition of daughters in families, see articles Woman and Marriage.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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