(Jdg 1:1.); and it was finally made manifest by the נגיד over Israel being chosen by God from the tribe of Judah, in the person of David (cf. 1Ch 28:4 with 1Sa 13:14; 1Sa 25:30). From this we gather that the short, and from its brevity obscure, sentence ממּנוּ וּלנגיד bears the signification we have given it. “But the birthright was Joseph's;” i.e., the rights of the progenitor were transferred to or remained with him, for two tribal domains were assigned to his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, according to the law of the first-born (Deu 21:15-17).
After this parenthetic explanation, the words “the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel,” 1Ch 5:1, are again taken up in 1Ch 5:3, and the sons are enumerated. The names of the four sons correspond to those given in Gen 46:9; Exo 6:14, and Num 26:5-7.
Verses 4-6
1Ch 5:4-6
From one of these sons descended Joel, whose family is traced down through seven generations, to the time of the Assyrian deportation of the Israelites. But we are neither informed here, nor can we ascertain from any information elsewhere given in the Old Testament, from which of the four sons Joel was descended. For although many of the names in 1Ch 5:4-6 frequently occur, yet they are nowhere met with in connection with the family whose members are here registered. The last-named, Beerah, was לראוּבני נשׂיא, a prince of the Reubenites, not a prince of the tribe of Reuben, but a prince of a family of the Reubenites. This is expressed by ל being used instead of the stat. constr.; cf. Ew. §292, a. In reference to the leading away of the trans-Jordanic tribes into captivity by Tiglath-pilneser, cf. on 2Ki 15:29. The name of this king as it appears in the Chronicles is always Tiglath-pilneser, but its meaning has not yet been certainly ascertained. According to Oppert's interpretation, it = תּגלת־פּלּא־סחר, i.e., “worship of the son of the Zodiac” (i.e., the Assyrian Hercules); vid., Delitzsch on Isaiah, Introd.
Verses 7-8
1Ch 5:7-8 “And his brothers,” (each) according to his families in the registration, according to their descent (properly their generations; vide for תּולדות on Gen 2:4), are (were) the head (the first) Jeiel and Zechariah, and Bela, ... the son of Joel,” probably the Joel already mentioned in 1Ch 5:4. “His (i.e., Beerah's) brothers” are the families related to the family of Beerah, which were descended from the brothers of Joel. That they were not, however, properly “brothers,” is clear from the fact that Bela's descent is traced back to Joel as the third of the preceding
