And Bela the son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel: Since verses 7-10 may originally have been separate from verses 4-6 (see the comments on the previous verse), the Joel mentioned here may be different from the “Joel” in verse 4. The same person may be intended, but that is not certain.
Who dwelt in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon: Who dwelt renders a singular pronoun and participle in Hebrew, and the subject is not clear. The possibilities include the following:
• (1) The subject could be to Bela (so Nouvelle Bible Segond). Menge clearly makes Bela the subject by giving the following heading to verses 8b-10: “Historical detail concerning Bela.” Menge then translates verse 8b as “This one lived in Aroer….”
• (2) It is more likely the descendants of Reuben if the singular pronoun and participle are understood in a collective sense. Some translations say “The Reubenites lived…” (New American Bible, Einheitsübersetzung, which begins a new paragraph here). Good News Translation seems to follow this second understanding by saying “This clan lived….” Contemporary English Version and Revised English Bible are similar with “They lived…” (similarly New International Version). New Jerusalem Bible says “It was Reuben who lived…,” but this translation may be misunderstood as referring to the individual rather than the clan. The same possibilities exist at the beginning of the next verse.
Aroer was a strategically located fortress-city that eventually came under Moabite control (see Jer 48.19). Aroer was given to the tribe of Reuben by Moses (Josh 13.15-16).
Nebo also came under Moabite control. In the Old Testament the name Nebo refers to both a city and a mountain in Moab. The exact location of this city is not known today, but most likely it was located very near Mount Nebo in northwest Moab. Some translations translate Nebo in this context as “Mount Nebo” (Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). In their prophecies against Moab, both Isaiah (15.2) and Jeremiah (48.1, 22) refer to the destruction of Nebo.
Baal-meon was another city that came under Moabite control. It is called “Beth-baal-meon” in Josh 13.17 and “Beth-meon” in Jer 48.23. It is probably better to write the name as two words rather than one since this will show more clearly the separate elements. Good News Translation and New Century Version have spelled it “Baal Meon.” But others write it with a hyphen as in Revised Standard Version (so New Revised Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible).
Some common language translations make explicit what the original readers would have known, that Nebo and Baal-meon were “north” of Aroer (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje).
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .