DAUGHTER. In the Scriptures the word for daughter (M, %-tryarhp) has more extended appli cations than our word daughter. Besides its usual and proper sense of—r. A daughter born or adopted, we find it used to designate-2. A uterine sister, niece, or any female descendant (Gen. xx.
12 ; xxiv. 48 ; xxviii. 6 ; xxxvi. 2 ; Num. xxv. 1 ; Deut. xxiii. 17). 3. Women as natives, residents, or professing the religion of certain places, as the daughter of Zion' (Is. iii. 16) ; ` daughters of the Philistines' (2 Sam. i. 20) ; daughter of a strange God' (Mal. ii. 1) ; ' daughters of men,' i. e., car nal women (Gen. vi. 2), etc. 4. Metaphorically, small towns are called daughters of neighbouring large cities, metropoles, or mother cities, to which they belonged, or from which they were derived, as Heshbon, and all the daughters [A. V. villages] thereof' (Num. xxi. 25) ; so Tyre is called the daughter of Sidon (Is. xxiii. 12), as having been originally a colony from thence, and hence also the town of Abel is called 'a mother in Israel' (2 Sam. xx. 19), and Gath is in one place (comp. 2 Sam.
viii. 1 ; I Chron. xviii. 1) called Ammah, or the mother town, to distinguish it from its own depen dencies, or from another place called Gath. [See Furst, II. W. B. s. PION.] See other instances in
Num. xxi. 32 ; Judg. xi. 26 ; Josh. xv. 45, etc. 5. The people collectively of any place, the name of which is given, as the daughter e., the people) of Jerusalem bath shaken her head at thee' (Is. xxxvii. 22 ; see also Ps. xlv. 13 ; cxxxvii. 8 ; Is. x. 30 ; Jer. xlvi. 19 ; Lam. iv. 22 ; Zech. ix. 9). This metaphor is illustrated by the almost universal custom of representing towns under the figure of a woman. 6. The word ' daughter,' followed by a numeral, indicates a woman of the age indicated by the numeral, as when Sarah (in the original) is called the daughter of ninety years' (Gem xvii. 17). 7. The word daughter' is also applied to the produce of animals, trees, or plants. Thus, daughter of the she-ostrich ' (supposed) for fe male ostrich' (Lev. xi. 16) ; Joseph is called a fruitful bough, whose daughters (branches) run over the wall' (Gen. xlix. 22).
The significations of the word daughter in its Scriptural use might be more minutely distin guished, but they may all be referred to one or other of these heads.
Respecting the condition of daughters in families, see art. WOMEN and MARRIAGE. J. K.