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When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked Israel and captured some prisoners.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hak·kə·na·‘ă·nî me·leḵ- ‘ă·rāḏ yō·šêḇ han·ne·ḡeḇ way·yiš·ma‘ kî yiś·rā·’êl bā de·reḵ hā·’ă·ṯā·rîm way·yil·lā·ḥem bə·yiś·rā·’êl way·yišb mim·men·nū še·ḇî
Word by word16 · parsed
√ Kᵉnaʻanîy — a Kenaanite or inhabitant of KenaanArticleNounpropermasculine singular
√ Kᵉnaʻanîy The gentilic "Canaanite" used broadly. The voices are nearly unanimous that this is the Berean reading: "the Canaanite, the king of Arad" — not a man named Arad. As Benson and JFB insist, "Arad is not the name of a man, but of a city or territory."
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct
√ ʻĂrâd — Arad, the name of a place near Palestine, also of a Canaanite and an IsraeliteNounproperfeminine singular
Arad — a real place, now Tell ʻArad, roughly twenty Roman miles south of Hebron (Eusebius, Jerome; so Barnes, Keil & Delitzsch). The proper noun is rare in Scripture (five occurrences), which makes its recurrence at Joshua 12:14 and Judges 1:16 a genuine verbal link, not a coincidence of theme.
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
Active participle "dwelling / enthroned": the root yāšaḇ carries both "sit" and "sit as ruler." Here it locates the king's seat in the Negev.
√ negeb — the south (from its drought)ArticleNounproperfeminine singular
the Negev — "the south, from its drought" (so the lexicon). Pointing back to the spy-narrative country of Numbers 13:17, 22; the same Negev where Israel's scouts had gone up.
√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
√ shâmaʻ "And he heard" — the verse pivots on hearing. The same verb opens v. 3, where the LORD hears Israel; the chapter is bracketed by two acts of hearing, the Canaanite's and God's.
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
√ derek — a road (as trodden)Nouncommon singular construct
√ ʼĂthârîym — Atharim, a place near PalestineArticleNounproperfeminine singular
Atharim — the single genuinely disputed word of the verse. The ancient versions split: the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Arabic take it as a place-name ("the way of Atharim"); the Targums, Syriac, and AV read it as "the spies" (a form of tûr, to scout). Cambridge cites Dillmann's Arabic athar, "footprint, track," yielding "the caravan route." The parse leaves it a proper noun; the meaning is honestly uncertain.
√ lâcham — to feed onConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
√ lâcham (Niphal) "He warred against Israel." Matthew Henry's whole-passage frame: the defeat "was to lead the Israelites to look more thoroughly to the Lord."
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular
√ shâbâh — to transport into captivityConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
√ shâbâh "And he took captive" — paired with its cognate noun in the next word. Gill records the rabbinic dispute over the scale: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say "great numbers," but Jarchi (Rashi) "only one single maidservant."
√ min — properly, a part ofPrepositionthird person masculine singular
√ shᵉbîy — exiledNounmasculine singular
captivity / a captive — the cognate noun closing the etymological figure. The loss is small in scale but large in meaning: the first contact with the land is a wound, the humbling Barnes and JFB read as deliberate (cf. Deuteronomy 9:4; Psalm 44:3).