Pallu

Pallu is the second-named son of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, and the head of the Reubenite clan called the Palluites. He is also spelled Phallu in older renderings of the same Hebrew name. Within the surveyed UPDV witness, the references to him appear inside genealogical lists rather than in narrative, and the lists are remarkably stable: across four notices in the Pentateuch and Chronicles he is cataloged in a fixed order, between Hanoch and Hezron.

Son of Reuben

Pallu first appears in the seventy-soul roster of Jacob's household entering Egypt: "And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, and Pallu, and Hezron, and Carmi" (Gen 46:9). The same four-son list reappears at the head of the Levitical genealogy in Exodus, this time framed as a clan structure: "These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben" (Exod 6:14). The Chronicler later repeats the same order without variation: "the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi" (1Chr 5:3).

The Palluites

In the second wilderness census, Pallu's name is attached to a named clan within Reuben: "Reuben, the firstborn of Israel; the sons of Reuben: [of] Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the family of the Palluites" (Num 26:5). The same passage records Pallu's only listed son: "And the sons of Pallu: Eliab" (Num 26:8). Pallu is thus the link between Reuben's four-son list and the Palluite clan that the census numbers in the wilderness generation; the line continues through Eliab.