5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.

Verses 4-6. - From which of the four sons of Reuben the line came in which Joel would appear, we do not know. Juntas and Tremellius say Hanoch, others Carmi, while the Syriac Version has Carrot vice Joel. It is to be remarked that in Numbers 26:8-10 a line of descent through Pallu is given, but reaching only to the second generation, Beerah in the present list will be only ninth at furthest from Reuben, so that it is evident that it is a very fragmentary genealogy, whether the hiatus be only one, viz. between Reuben's son (whichever it may be in question) and Joel, or whether both there and elsewhere also. Of none of the eight persons beginning with Joel and ending with Beerah is anything else known, unless either Shemaiah or Shimei may be identical with the Shema of ver. 8, in which case it might be also that the Joel of ver. 8 is identical with that of ver. 4. In this passage and 1 Chronicles 8:30 Baal appears as the name of a man. In this passage, and in ver. 26 and 2 Chronicles 28:20, we have a different form in each part of the word, of the Tiglath-pileser of 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 16:7. These slight differences in the position of the radicals, with the introduction or omission of the א, make as many as four different readings in the Hebrew. Tiglath-pileser, the second Assyrian king who came into conflict with the Israelites, reigned about B.C. 747-727. Gesenius thinks that the former half of the word is the same as Diglath, i.q. Tigris; and that the latter, a root occurring also in the name Nabo-pola-saris, is from an Assyrian verb meaning "to guard." He translates the word as "Lord of the Tigris." The Assyrian reproduction of the name is Tigulti-pal-tsira (Smith's 'Bible Dictionary'), or Tukulti-pal-zara ('Speaker's Commentary,' in loc.). The Captivity is spoken of further in the last verse of this chapter and in 2 Kings 15:27-31. The Septuagint reads vers. 4 and 5 differently: "The sons of Joel, Semei and Banaea his son; and the sons of Gog the son of Semei," etc., and this in all three editions - Vatican, Alexandrine, and Aldine.

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.

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