Thinking about what Joe said--The writers did not intend to have every word of the Torah taken literally. Yes and no.

People who would take a bunch of ex-slaves, have them abide in a desert for 40 years would tend to be rather strong minded, almost certainly of a fundamentalist bent and would expect everyone they brought out the other side to be as strongly adherent to the olde faith as they were. They knew they were forging a people out of malleable clay. They knew they were forming a way of life for generations to follow.

That said, it has been demonstrated that there were several writers or committees which produced various books of the Bible, including the Pentateuch. How could we not expect there to be inconsistencies based upon the interests and prejudices of the individual writers.