SAMALIA. — A name (Hebrew Šema'jáh) fairly common in the Bible, rendered twice as S. in the Vulgate, which elsewhere prefers Semeia (cf. v.). In 1 Chronicles 4:37 it appears in the genealogy of the descendants of the patriarch Simeon. In 1 Chronicles 12:4 a Gibeonite bears this name, a friend of David: he was the leader of the “thirty,” i.e., the most trusted and highly esteemed body for military valor.
Enciclopedia Cattolica