Some Location Issues
In national folklore, as relationships between nations changes, so do the stories. And depending on the scribe of the time, details of the original stories may change, and this is an example.
Remember, Moses has seen the promised land from the other side. The people had already confronted a number of nations, including the Moabites in the Balaam story.
But there's something a bit odd, because, well, look at this map:
If you look at the map, the star is where the Hebrews were. The black line shows their path to Canaan, having to bypass Edom because the king of Edom refused to allow the Israelites passage (historically, Edom was very resistant to the Judeans, and would be forced to convert to Judaism in 125 BCE). I modified the map somewhat to indicate that Aram Naharaim is north of the Euphrates and this is where Balaam lived. The distance between Moab and Midian was about 1,500 kilometers.
I am bringing this up because the Moabites and the Midianites were not exactly neighbors, and yet, in one portion of the story, the Moabites are the ones causing the problem, and yet in another, it's the Midianites who are the hated ones. And while in Midian, the Hebrews, who have no idea who Balaam is, kill him with a sword when he was more than 2,000 kilometers to the north at the time.
And the narrative tells us that when the battle was over (not a single Hebrew died), the 12,000 Hebrew soldiers marched back with 32,000 human captives, 61,000 donkeys, 675,000 sheep, and approximately 150 kilograms of gold.
What is more likely, that women from Midian made a multi-day travel to meet up with and frolic with the Hebrews by Moab, or that this was fully a Moabite operation with no Midianites involved?
The Moab-Midianite Swap
In three successive Torah portions, the Balaam episode, the Pinchas story, and this week, while the Hebrews are up by Moab, the story keeps bringing up the Midianites.
With Balaam, you have the Moabite king sending Midianite elders with the Moabite elders (22:7) up north to find Balaam. And while the Moabite elders will be mentioned later with Balaam (22:8), the Midianite elders are never mentioned again.
With Pinchas, it begins by saying that the Hebrews were involved with the Moabite women (25:1). Only in 25:6 is a Midianite woman mentioned, and there are no other mentions of Midionite women. After mentioning this single Midianite woman, a princess, Moses commands the Hebrews to harass and kill the Midianites.
And not a single mention of the involvement of the Moabites. And the Moabites are not mentioned again for the rest of the Book of Numbers, while the Midianites are being destroyed, killed by the sword, wiped out.
Sort of
A Different Midian
In chapters 6-7 of the Book of Judges, we read that the Midianites were defeating the Hebrews, and that they aligned themselves with the Amalakites (Judges 6:3).
Eventually, with the help of God, the Hebrews are successful, but it is fascinating that the storyteller would have the Midianites not only be referred to as Israel's enemy, but having it join forces with Israel's eternally most hated enemy - the Amalakites.
In the Book of Exodus, Midian is a place where Moses had enjoyed 40 years of his life, and had no problem that his father in-law was a priest of their God (perhaps Chemosh). And he married a Midianite, and his children were from that stock. His father in-law was his consul for a time, and the God of Israel chose the location of Midian to have His mountain, where Moses would find Him.
What is likely is that, as national folklore, the relationship between Midian changed, and became more adversarial. And so, in contrast to the story in Judges where the Midianites are powerful and tough to beat, in the Book of Numbers, the Israelites easily defeat them, kill everyone, and those that they didn't kill, (32,000), the took back with them, only to have Moses command them to kill a large number of them. To hack the boys to death, and to kill an female who might carry the seed of a Midianite.
These were a people to be hated. In the Book of Numbers, there is absolutely no reason given to hate them all except that a single princes had sex with a Hebrew prince in front of Moses.
That's it.
But as for the Moabites, their women brought idols, and they arrived in large numbers.
And against them, nothing is said.
Not a word.
Conclusion
It is likely that one or more scribes updated the interactions with the Moabits to include the Midianites, and replaced acts that were solely from the Moabites to make them appear as if they were initiated by the Midianites as part of a nationalistic update of the folklore.
The scribe(s) didn't consider the geography problems, nor the inconsistency issues with having Midianites being part of the Moabite story. It didn't matter.
As for the Moabites, their relationship with Israel would get a boost by having a Moabite descendant become the king of Israel (David), and so ignoring their acts of idolatry and promiscuity wwas simply part of the nationalistic narrative.
In other words, the stories were updated to include nationalistic propaganda.
In the world of politics, some things never change!
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