And Bela had sons …: Verses 3-5 list descendants of Bela, Benjamin’s oldest son. It is possibly correct to translate sons as “descendants” as in Good News Translation since the names in the following verses may not all be literally “sons” of Bela.

Addar is the reading of the Masoretic Text. In agreement with one Hebrew manuscript and parallels in Gen 46.21 and Num 26.40, some translations have the name “Ard” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Luther).

According to the Masoretic Text of this verse, Gera and Abihud are brothers; but according to Jdg 3.15, Gera was the father of Ehud. Possibly the name Abihud (ʾabihud in Hebrew) should be slightly corrected to read “the father of Ehud” (ʾabi ʾehud in Hebrew), so that Gera, Abihud becomes “Gera the father of Ehud” (Revised English Bible; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, La Bible Pléiade, El libro del Pueblo de Dios, Dutch common language version [Bijbel in Gewone Taal], Osty-Trinquet, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous, alternative translation in New Living Translation). Verse 6 lists the sons of Ehud, so that verse follows smoothly from this correction in verse 3. However, there is no manuscript support for this change of the Masoretic Text. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament acknowledges that the Masoretic Text here probably contains an error, but since there is not manuscript evidence on which to base a change, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament recommends that the Masoretic Text be followed. But translators may decide to indicate in a footnote that the original text probably said “Gera the father of Ehud.”

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 .