The genealogies at the beginning of I Chronicles are not the most exciting reading; yet they are part of the Bible, and richer in content than people usually give them credit for.

The Chronicler – we have no other name for the author of these two books – quickly lists descendants for characters whose stories had taken many chapters earlier on. Noah is simply noted as the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (I Chronicles 1:3), and for Abraham we are merely told that he was the father of Isaac and Ishmael (1:28), and also the father of Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (1:32).

The Chronicler does take a moment to make a pun on the name of Achan, who died for appropriating some of the plunder in the Valley of Achor (Joshua 7:1-26). The Hebrew word achor means ‘trouble,’ and the Chronicler lists Achan’s name as Achar, which means ‘troubler,’ noting that he “brought trouble on Israel” (I Chronicles 2:7).

Many of the people listed are wonderfully obscure, with names like Shobal, Segub, Ozem, or Mizzah. (Why does no one today name their children after these Bible characters?) Yet the Chronicler has included them, out of a sense that these distant cousins are part of the family after all, and should not be forgotten.

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We seem to have a narrower view of family connections, Lord – parents and children, probably grandparents, and occasionally great-grandparents and some cousins – where the Bible shows whole nations as our relatives. Teach us that perspective, we pray, so that we may believe that those peoples whose names we cannot pronounce are claimed within the family, just like we are.