Arad

Biblical Record

Arad first appears in Numbers 21:1-3. The Canaanite king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim (rendered "the way of the spies" in the KJV). He went out to fight against Israel and took some of the Israelites captive. Israel then made a vow to God: if He would deliver this people into their hand, they would utterly destroy their cities. God heard the prayer, and Israel destroyed them and their cities. The place was afterward called "Hormah." Numbers 33:40 refers to the same event again in its account of the journey after Aaron died on Mount Hor.

Joshua 12:14 contains a list of the kings whom Israel defeated in the time of Moses and Joshua, and the king of Arad is listed alongside the king of Hormah. Judges 1:16 records that the descendants of the Kenite, the family of Moses' father-in-law, went up with the children of Judah "into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad," and settled there. First Chronicles 8:15 mentions a Benjamite whose name has the same spelling, but he is unrelated to the place called Arad.

Background

Arad is understood to have been a city in the Negev region of southern Canaan, in the area east of Beersheba. The name "Hormah" comes from the same root as the Hebrew word herem, which denotes devoting something to God by destroying it (often rendered "utter destruction").

Tel Arad in modern Israel is commonly identified with biblical Arad. Excavations there have uncovered the remains of an Early Bronze Age city and an Iron Age fortress of the Kingdom of Judah. Inside the fortress, excavators found a sanctuary with an altar and incense altars, along with inscribed pottery fragments (ostraca). However, clear evidence of settlement from the Late Bronze Age, the period generally associated with the events in Numbers, is reportedly lacking at the site. Scholars therefore differ on whether biblical Arad was located elsewhere or whether "Arad" was the name of an entire region.

Significance in Scripture

Within the narrative of the forty years in the wilderness, the Arad account is read as Israel's first victory. Earlier, after the incident of the twelve spies, Israel had gone up without God's permission, was defeated, and was driven back "even unto Hormah" (Numbers 14:45). In contrast to that failure, this account portrays a victory won after Israel made a vow to God. In Numbers, the episode of the bronze serpent immediately follows this account. The New Testament does not mention Arad directly.

Interpretation and Debate

• The way of Atharim: The Korean New Revised Version transliterates the phrase as "the way of Atharim." Some older translations, such as the KJV, read the word as "the way of the spies."
• The command of utter destruction: Interpreters differ on how to understand the herem account, in which the cities were completely destroyed. Some view it as a record of ancient warfare customs, while others read it as a depiction of God's judgment and of a break with idolatry.
• The Arad sanctuary and religious reform: Some scholars connect the closing of the Tel Arad sanctuary with the worship reforms of Hezekiah or Josiah. However, this view depends on how the excavation dates are interpreted, and the biblical text does not state it directly.