Adoni´jah (Jehovah [is] my Lord) the fourth son of David, by Haggith. He was born after his father became king, but when he reigned over Judah only (2 Samuel 3:4). According to the Oriental notion developed in the article Absalom Adonijah might have considered his claim superior to that of his eldest brother Amnon, who is supposed to have been born while his father was in a private station; but not to that of Absalom, who was not only his elder brother, and born while his father was a king, but was of royal descent on the side of his mother. When, however, Amnon and Absalom were both dead, he became, by order of birth, the heir-apparent to the throne. But this order had been set aside in favor of Solomon, who was born while his father was king of all Israel. Absalom perished in attempting to assert his claim of primogeniture, in opposition to this arrangement. Unawed by this example, Adonijah assumed the state of an heir-apparent, who, from the advanced age of David, must soon be king. But it does not appear to have been his wish to trouble his father as Absalom had done; for he waited till David appeared at the point of death, when he called around him a number of influential men, whom he had previously gained over, and caused himself to be proclaimed king. This was a formidable attempt to subvert the appointment made by the Divine king of Israel; for Adonijah was supported by such men as Joab, the general-in-chief, and Abiathar, the high-priest; both of whom had followed David in all his fortunes. But his plot was, notwithstanding, defeated by the prompt measure taken by David, who directed Solomon to be at once proclaimed, and crowned, and admitted to the real exercise of the sovereign power. Adonijah then saw that all was lost, and fled to the altar, which he refused to leave without a promise of pardon from King Solomon. This he received, but was warned that any further attempt of the came kind would be fatal to him. Accordingly, when, sometime after the death of David, Adonijah covertly endeavoured to reproduce his claim through a marriage with Abishag, the virgin widow of his father [ABISHAG], his design was at once penetrated by the king, by whose order he was instantly put to death (1 Kings 1; 1 Kings 2:13-25).
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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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