1 Chronicles 11:42–47

1 Chronicles 11:42 — Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite: The list opens with Adina, identified not only by personal name but by father, tribe, and rank ("a chief of the Reubenites"). The notation that "thirty with him" accompanied him distinguishes Adina from most other warriors on the roster, suggesting he commanded a sub-unit within the Gibborim. Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob who forfeited his birthright through sin (Genesis 49:3–4), yet here a Reubenite stands among David's most honored. The tribe's disgrace does not define its descendants forever — individuals within even a dishonored lineage can rise to distinction through valor and loyalty.

1 Chronicles 11:43 — Hanan the son of Maacah; Joshaphat the Mithnite: Hanan's patronym "son of Maacah" may indicate Aramean or Transjordanian heritage, since Maacah was both a person and a small Aramean kingdom near Mount Hermon. If so, this warrior, like others on the list, is a foreigner who has attached himself to Israel's king. Joshaphat the Mithnite is otherwise unknown; "Mithnite" may indicate a village or clan of Transjordan. The Chronicler records him anyway, with no feat to his name — his presence in the army of the anointed suffices.

1 Chronicles 11:44 — Uzzia the Ashterathite; Shama and Jeiel the sons of Hotham the Aroerite: Ashteroth was a city in Bashan (modern Syria), associated in the Pentateuch with the giant Og (Deuteronomy 1:4). A warrior from that pagan city now serves Israel's Davidic king — another signal of the breadth of those drawn into covenant loyalty. Shama and Jeiel are brothers, sons of Hotham of Aroer (a town in the territory of Gad in Transjordan). The appearance of brothers serving together in the same elite corps anticipates the fraternal unity that will later characterize the Maccabees.

1 Chronicles 11:45 — Jediael the son of Shimri; and Joha his brother, the Tizite: Again two brothers appear together — Jediael and Joha — the latter identified as "the Tizite," likely a gentilc indicating an unidentified locale. The pattern of brothers serving side by side in fidelity to the king recurs through these final verses and may not be accidental: the Chronicler, writing in the post-exilic period, is subtly commending the ideal of households consecrated together to God's purposes.

1 Chronicles 11:46 — Eliel the Mahavite; Jeribai and Joshaviah sons of Elnaam; Ithmah the Moabite: This verse is especially striking. Ithmah is identified as a Moabite — and Moab was a nation barred from Israel's assembly "to the tenth generation" by the law of Deuteronomy 23:3. Yet here a Moabite stands not merely tolerated in Israel but enrolled among its most celebrated warriors. This is a deliberate echo of the trajectory set by Ruth, the Moabite ancestress of David himself (Ruth 4:17–22). Ithmah's presence among the Gibborim enacts in military form what Ruth enacted in domestic life: the foreigner who cleaves to the God of Israel finds a place of honor.

1 Chronicles 11:47 — Eliel, Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobaite: The list closes with three names; the last, Jaasiel, bears the gentilc "Mezobaite," a designation of uncertain geography. Obed — "servant" or "worshipper" in Hebrew — carries a name that functions almost as a theological caption for the entire list: every man here is, in essence, an eved, a servant of the Lord's anointed.

Typological and Spiritual Senses: The Fathers read David's warriors as figures of the saints who surround Christ the true King. Origen and later Augustine interpreted the armies of David as the Church militant — those who battle not with sword but with virtue against the powers of darkness. Just as these warriors are listed by name in the king's roll, so Scripture promises that the faithful are inscribed in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 20:15). The inclusion of foreigners — Moabites, Arameans, warriors from pagan Bashan — prefigures the universal Church drawn from every nation under the one Davidic-Messianic King.

The Catholic tradition has long seen in the lists of David's warriors a figure of the Communion of Saints — the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) who surround the heavenly King. The Catechism teaches that "the Church is communion of saints" (CCC 960) and that every member of the Body of Christ, however obscure, is known and loved personally by God. These sixteen verses, with their roll call of the unknown and the foreign, embody that truth: God keeps a record that human history ignores.

St. John Chrysostom, commenting on similar genealogical passages, notes that the Holy Spirit does not permit the names of the virtuous to perish — their inscription in Scripture is itself a form of resurrection from oblivion. Pope Benedict XVI, in Verbum Domini (§29), taught that every part of Scripture, including lists and genealogies, "bears witness to the living Tradition of the Church" and must be read within the whole canon.

The presence of Ithmah the Moabite is particularly rich in Catholic theological terms. It enacts the principle articulated by St. Paul in Galatians 3:28 — "There is neither Jew nor Greek" — and anticipates what Vatican II's Lumen Gentium (§16) affirms: that those outside the visible covenant community who "seek God with a sincere heart" and respond to grace may be ordered to the People of God. Ithmah did not merely seek — he fought and bled for Israel's king. His presence is a prophetic sign of the universal scope of Messianic salvation, accomplished fully in the One to whom David's kingship pointed.

In an age obsessed with celebrity, influence metrics, and legacy, these verses perform a quietly subversive act: they insist on naming the nameless. Most Catholics will live lives of unheralded service — teaching a child to pray, caring for a sick parent, showing up faithfully to Mass, quietly tithing. The world will not remember them. This passage promises that God does.

The inclusion of foreigners — a Moabite, an Ashterathite from pagan Bashan — speaks directly to Catholic communities navigating questions of belonging and immigration. These outsiders are not merely tolerated; they are listed, ranked, and honored. A contemporary Catholic might ask: who are the "Ithmah the Moabites" in my parish — recent immigrants, converts, those on the margins — whose fidelity to Christ far outstrips their social recognition? The Chronicler's roll call is a challenge to the community: do we keep the same list God keeps? True belonging in the Church is not a matter of ancestry or social standing, but of loyal attachment to the Lord's Anointed.