ARAD â’ ăd (עֲרָד׃֙, LXX ̓Αράδ; wild ass, fugitive). 1. A city in the NE Negeb some seventeen m. S of Hebron and about the same distance W of Masada. The city occupied an excellent strategic position in the middle of a wide, gently rolling plain. The Tell indicates that Arad was a center of civilization as early as the fourth millennium b.c. and again in Abrahamite times. The archeological evidence also implies that Arad was a city of stone and brick with defensive walls by the 10th cent. b.c.

The city of Arad is mentioned only four times in the OT (Num 21:1; 33:40; Josh 12:14; Judg 1:16). In the KJV it is twice taken incorrectly for the name of a king (Num 21:1; 33:40). According to Numbers 21:1-3, the “king” (or chieftain) of Arad joined battle with Israel, Israel being victorious and calling the place Hormah (“destruction”).

2. A descendant of Benjamin through Beriah (1 Chron 8:15).

Bibliography On 1. see N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev (1959), 49-53 and passim; Y. Aharoni and R. Amiran, “The Problem of Canaanite Arad,” IEJ, XIV (1964), 144-147.