It’s no secret that the Israelites have absolutely zero allies in the wilderness. They fought the Amalekites about ten minutes after leaving Egypt (Exodus 17), and they were just rebuffed by Edom (Numbers 20).
Forced to find an alternate route, Israel heads away from Edom and goes through the land of the Negev, just south of the Dead Sea in the Transjordan area. It’s not quite in Edom’s territory, but it’s really close.
Just like with Edom, when the king of the Canaanites finds out about Moses’ route, he stands against them. And this time, he’s victorious, even taking several of them captive.
In response, Israel makes a vow towards God that they will utterly destroy every last one of the cities of Arad if God gives them into Israel’s hand. God agrees, and the cities are destroyed. Afterwards, the area is named Hormah, which means “destruction.”
Curiously, Moses doesn’t appear anywhere in these three verses. It’s actually Israel that makes the vow to annihilate the cities of the Negev in return for the release of the captives, which shows a devotion to God that seems rare, given Israel’s other history in Numbers.
Their motivation seems pretty straightforward, though. Their friends and family members were taken as captives; most people would be willing to do anything to get them back.
With the exception of the Amalekites, Israel really never has an issue completely annihilating their enemies. They do it all throughout the book of Joshua; where they fail is in actually going to those cities. They leave several of them fragmented throughout the country, which eventually comes back to bite them.
This battle at the Negev almost seems unnecessary. Israel’s beef isn’t with them, but with Canaan. That’s their goal. That’s their promised land. Why is everyone else wanting to fight them?
The words of Rahab are probably appropriate here. When the spies infiltrate Jericho, Rahab says the entire city has heard of what Israel did at the Red Sea and to enemy kings. As a result, “their hearts have melted.” They know God has given the land to Israel; the only thing left is to save her own skin.
It seems like this was a pretty common thought among the Canaanites. Word had travelled fast about the group of former slaves that left Egypt via miracles and were now marching to Canaan. A whole fleet of miracles had accompanied them, and no enemy had been able to withstand them.
That’s probably why the Canaanites met them at the Negev. Even though they weren’t the primary target, they knew Israel was on the warpath and needed to stop them.
Ironically, this area in the Transjordan falls outside of the boundary marker for Canaan. According to Deuteronomy 20:10-18, everything inside the official border for Judah is to be annihilated. All cities outside of that line are enslaved. Joshua 15 lays out the exact geographical region in detail.
The king of the Negev didn’t know about that marker, but he should’ve known better than to stand against God. After all, if he knew Jehovah could part the Red Sea, what did he think God would do to his army?