Hezron, and Carmi] also given as sons of Judah: for Hezron, compare ii. 5 (note); for Carmi ii. 7, iv. 1.
⁴The sons of Joel; Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son; ⁵Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son;
4. sons of Joel] the connection, if any, with the preceding verse is not known.
⁶Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser[²] king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites. ⁷And his brethren by their families, when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned; the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,
[²] In 2 Kings xv. 29, xvi. 7, Tiglath-pileser.
6. Beerah ... captive] The deportation of Beerah is recorded only here, but there is no reason why the tradition should not be historical. The information is of very slight importance in itself, but since there is absolutely no motive to make the Chronicler invent the statement, this is precisely the kind of notice which implies that he had some sources oral or traditional at his command outside the canonical material (see Introduction. [§ 5]).
Tilgath-pilneser] called Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xv. 29), and no doubt identical with Pul (see below, verse 26).
⁸and Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, even unto Nebo and Baal-meon: ⁹and eastward he dwelt even unto the entering in of the wilderness from the river Euphrates: because their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.
8. Aroer] now ‘Ar‘āir, a heap of ruins near the wādy Mojib, i.e. the Arnon (Joshua xii. 2). According to Joshua xiii. 9–16 it passed from Sihon king of the Amorites into the hands of the Reubenites. See Bädeker, Palestine⁵, p. 153.
Nebo and Baal-meon] A line drawn due north from Aroer (see last note) passes close first to Ma‘in (which may be Baal-meon) and then to Jebel Nebā, which evidently preserves the name of Mount Nebo.