Problem: In Numbers 22:20 God had told Balaam to go with the men to the plains of Moab. However, verse 22 says, “Then God’s anger aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him.” Also, in verse 33 the angel of the Lord says, “If she [the donkey] had not turned aside from Me, I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.” Why did the angel of the Lord try to kill Balaam when God had already given him permission to go with the men from Moab?

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Problem: God would not allow Israel to do battle with the Edomites because He had given the land of Edom to Esau as an everlasting possession. Numbers 20:21 states that “Israel turned away from him.” However, when Moses reviews these events in Deuteronomy 2:4, he states that the Lord said, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 2:8 says Israel “passed beyond our brethren the descendants of Esau.” Did they pass through Edom or did they go around it?

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Problem: In this text Kadesh is said to be in the “Wilderness of Zin.” But in Numbers 13:26 it is said to be in the “Wilderness of Paran.” Which was it?

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Problem: This verse states that “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah.” However, Numbers 26:11 speaks about Korah’s descendants who did not perish in the judgment.

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Problem: In verses 31–32 it says the earth opened and swallowed Korah and his 250 rebellious associates. Yet verse 35 asserts that fire came from God and consumed Korah and his associates.

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Problem: Leviticus states that for unintentional sins of the whole congregation, when the sin is made known, “the assembly shall offer a young bull for the sin” (Lev. 4:14). However, here Numbers 15 speaks of offering two different sacrifices for the same sin—“one young bull as a burnt offering … and one kid of the goats as a sin offering” (v. 24).

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Problem: According to Numbers 14:29, the corpses of all the men older than 20 years would fall in the wilderness. The total was over 600,000. But, if so many died in the wilderness, why do their grave sites not litter the landscape?

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Problem: This verse says the Amalekites and Canaanites “dwell in the valley.” But verse 45 says the opposite, namely, they “dwelt in that mountain.”

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