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.Beerah his son,.... The last of Joel's posterity, who, according to the Targum and other Jewish writers (q) was a prophet, and the father of Hosea, see Hosea 1:1 but neither the name, title, time, nor tribe, agree:

whom Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria carried away captive; the same with Tiglathpileser by a transposition of letters, 2 Kings 15:29 and is read the same here in the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic versions:

he was prince of the Reubenites; at that time; that is, Beerah was.

(q) Aben Ezra in Hos. i. 1. Pesikta apud Abarbinel. in ib.