Numbers chapter 21

After reading chapter 21:

*Now the Canaanite King of Arad, in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were coming, so he attacked and captured some of them. The Israelites asked God to let them destroy the cities in that area, and of course he obliged since they had asked nicely. So, they completely destroyed the people and their towns and called the place Hormah, which was also the name of two other places in the Bible,(Numbers 14, Judges 1) in spite of the fact that there is no extra biblical reference to any place of that name. This is in contrast to the Arad site which shows that it was an early Israelite site with a possible temple to Yahweh on its high point.

*After slaughtering the inhabitants of that area the Israelites move on, complaining of the lack of food and water. So, Yahweh, who had let them  destroy whole towns,  decided to send poisonous snakes to pester them. They were seriously alarmed and asked Moses to pray for them, because prayer is the most effective way to deal with snakes. He did, and Yahweh told him to set up a pole with a bronze snake for the people to look at when they got bit, that would keep them from dying. Because it would have been too much trouble to just get rid of the snakes. I wonder if it looked anything like the rod of Asclepius or Ningishzida, among the many uses of serpent symbology.

*The Israelites moved on camping in Oboth, lye Abarim, the Zered valley, and beside the Arnon River which is now called the wadi Mujib. Apparently, there was a Book of the Wars of Yahweh that told about  this. It has vanished from existence. And they kept moving from place to place til they came to the valley of Moab overlooked by Pisgah. 

*Then they sent messengers to the king of the Amorites to ask if they could pass through his territory. He said no. Verse 23. The irony of the text saying that this land belongs to the Amorites and not the Israelites is almost amusing. So, the king got an army together and met the Israelites, but this time they killed the king, took over the land of the Amorites, and occupied all its cities. You can guess what happened to the inhabitants. However they could only go so far because the Ammonite border was fortified. So the Israelites settled in the land of the Amorites, presumably east of the Jordan at this time.

*Then they had more battles, captured more settlements, took posession of more land, and killed more people, all with the help of Yahweh, of course.

Edited.