Zi´ba (statue), a servant of the house of Saul, of whom David inquired if there was anyone left of the house of Saul to whom the monarch might show favor. Mephibosheth was in consequence found, and having been certified of David's friendship, Ziba, who was at the head of a large family, having fifteen sons and twenty slaves, was appointed to till the land for the prince, and generally to constitute his household and do him service (). This position Ziba employed for his master's harm. When David had to fly from Jerusalem in consequence of the rebellion of Absalom, Ziba met the king with a large and acceptable present—'But where is Mephibosheth?' asked the fugitive monarch; 'in Jerusalem,' was the answer; 'for he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.' Enraged at this, which looked like ingratitude as well as treachery, David thereupon gave to the faithless Ziba all the property of Mephibosheth (, sq.). On David's return to his metropolis an explanation took place, when Mephibosheth accused Ziba of having slandered him; and David, apparently not being perfectly satisfied with the defense, gave his final award, that the land should be divided between the master and his servant (, sq.).
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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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