Lead, a well-known metal, the first Scriptural notice of which occurs in the triumphal song in which Moses celebrates the overthrow of Pharaoh, whose host is there said to have 'sunk like lead' in the waters of the Red Sea ().
Before the use of quicksilver was known, lead was used for the purpose of purifying silver, and separating it from other mineral substances. To this Jeremiah alludes where he figuratively describes the corrupt condition of the people: 'In their fire the lead is consumed (in the crucible); the smelting is in vain, for the evil is not separated' ().
Job () expresses a wish that his words were engraven 'with an iron pen and lead.' These words are commonly supposed to refer to engraving on a leaden tablet; and it is undeniable that such tablets were anciently used as a writing material. But our authorized translators, by rendering 'an iron pen and lead in the rock forever,' seem to have entertained the same view with Rosenmüller, who supposes that molten lead was to be poured into letters sculptured on stone with an iron chisel, in order to raise the inscription.
Although the Hebrew weights were usually of stone, and are indeed called 'stones,' a leaden weight denominated anach, which is the Arabic word for lead, occurs in . In , a plummet for taking soundings at sea is mentioned, and this was of course of lead.
The ancient uses of lead in the East seem to have been very few; nor are they now numerous. One may travel far in Western Asia without discovering any trace of this metal in any of the numerous useful applications which it is made to serve in European countries.
We are not aware that any trace of lead has been yet found within the limits of Palestine. But ancient lead-mines, in some of which the ore has been exhausted by working, have been discovered by Mr. Burton in the mountains between the Red Sea and the Nile; and lead is also said to exist at a place called Sheff, near Mount Sinai.
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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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