And his brethren, and all his kindred, when they were numbered by their families, had for princes Jehiel, and Zacharias.

And his brethren by their families, in the genealogical register of their generations, were: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,

And his brethren, by their families, in the genealogy of their generations, are heads: Jeiel, and Zechariah,

And his brothers by their families, when the list of their generations was made up: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,

Now his brothers and all his kindred, when they were being numbered according to their families, had as leaders Jeiel and Zechariah.

And his brethren by their families,.... Either the brethren of Beerah, or the rest of the posterity of Reuben:
(when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned;) either in the times of Jotham and Jeroboam, 1-Chronicles 5:17 or at the time of their captivity, as in the preceding verse:
were the chief, Jehiel, and Zechariah; these were the principals or heads of their families.

"And his brothers," (each) according to his families in the registration, according to their descent (properly their generations; vide for תּולדות on Genesis 2:4), are (were) the head (the first) Jeiel and Zechariah, and Bela, the son of Joel," probably the Joel already mentioned in 1-Chronicles 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 members of his family; and the conclusion would be the same, even if this Joel be another than the one mentioned in 1-Chronicles 5:4. The singular suffix with למשׁפּחתיו is to be taken distributively or אישׁ may be supplied before it in thought; cf. Numbers 2:34; Numbers 11:10. The word ראשׁ, "head," for the first-born, stands here before the name, as in 1-Chronicles 12:3; 1-Chronicles 23:8; elsewhere it stands after the name, e.g., 1-Chronicles 5:12 and 1-Chronicles 9:17. The dwelling-places of Bela and his family are then given in 1-Chronicles 5:8, 1-Chronicles 5:9. "He dwelt in Aroer," on the banks of the brook Arnon (Joshua 13:9; Joshua 12:2), now the ruin Araayr on the northern bank of the Mojeb (vide on Numbers 32:34). "Until Nebo and Baal-meon" westward. Nebo, a village on the hill of the same name in the mountains of Abarim, opposite Jericho (cf. on Numbers 32:38). Baal-meon is probably identical with the ruin Myun, three-quarters of an hour south-east from Heshbon.