The sons of Joel - The line of succession here given must be broken by one great gap or several smaller ones, since nine generations before Tiglath-pileser would carry us back no further than the reign of Rehoboam.

The sons of Joel,.... Who was either the son of Carmi last mentioned, or rather of Hanoch, Reuben's firstborn, since the descendants of him were the princes of the tribe: his posterity in succession were, Shemaiah, Cog, Shimei, Micah, Reaia, Baal, Beerah; of whom we know no more than their names, and by these the descent is carried down to the captivity by Tiglathpileser, as follows.

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 1-Chronicles 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 2-Kings 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.