And his brethren by their families,.... Either the brethren of Beerah, or the rest of the posterity of Reuben:
(when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned;) either in the times of Jotham and Jeroboam, 1 Chronicles 5:17 or at the time of their captivity, as in the preceding verse:
[were] the chief, Jehiel, and Zechariah; these were the principals or heads of their families.