Matthew Poole and continuators on Numbers 21:1

1 AND when King Arad the Canaanite , which dwelt in the south , heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies , then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners .

Or rather, the Canaanite King of Arad: for Arad is not the name of a man, but of a city or territory, as may seem from Ios. 12. 14. Iudg. 1. 16. if at least this was the same place with that. And he seems to be called a Canaanite in a general sence, as the Amorites and others sometimes are.

To wit, of Canaan, as appears from Numb. 33. 40. towards the east, and near the dead Sea.

Not of those spies which Moses sent to spie the land, Numb. 13. 17. for that was done 38 years before this, and they went so privately, that the Canaanites took no notice of them, nor knew which way they came or went, but of the spies which he himself sent out to observe the marches and motions of the Israelites. But the words may be otherwise rendred, either thus, in the manner of spies, so the sence is, when he heard that divers of the Israelites came into or towards his country in the nature of spies to prepare the way for the rest: or thus, by the way of Atharim, a place so called, as the seventy Interpreters here take it, and it seems not improbable.

Which God permitted for Israels humiliation and punishment, and to teach them not to expect the conquest of that land from their own wisdom or valour, but wholly from Gods favour and assistance. See Deut. 9. 4. Psal. 44. 3, 4.

Marginal references: chap. 33. 40.; Heb. the Canaanite king of Arad Josh. 12. 14. Judg. 1. 16.