And his kinsmen by their families: Some interpreters think that verses 7-10 may originally have been a separate fragment, unrelated to verses 4-6. But in their present context the pronoun his must refer to Beerah in the previous verse, as God’s Word makes explicit. For New Century Version this pronoun refers to Joel and for Good News Translation it seems to point to Reuben. But we advise translators to show that Beerah is in view here. Kinsmen translates the Hebrew word for “brother”; Nouvelle version Segond révisée and Nouvelle Bible Segond therefore translate his kinsmen as “Brothers of Beerah.” But this makes the relationship too close. New Living Translation more correctly says “Beerah’s relatives.” La Bible du Semeur is similar with “The men related to Beerah,” and so is Bible en français courant with “The cousins of Beerah.”

When the genealogy of their generations was reckoned: This clause may be difficult to translate in some languages. Genealogy may be rendered “tribal lists” (Revised English Bible) or “family histories” (New Century Version). If the passive verb was reckoned requires an active expression, the first half of this verse may be translated “When people wrote down the stories of their families, family by family, Beerah’s relatives were…” or “When scribes wrote down the list of family names, they recorded Beerah’s relatives as….”

The chief, Je-iel …: The chief is literally “the head.” This phrase appears to refer to Jeiel only (so Revised Standard Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), but Good News Translation connects it to all of the names that follow. The Hebrew word translated chief may also refer to a firstborn son. Some interpreters think that this verse was a fragment of a separate genealogy in which Jeiel was listed as the firstborn. This may be the basis for the New Jerusalem Bible translation “Jeiel was first.”

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 .