Numbers 21:4-9

4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red * Sea, to ¹go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

5 The people spoke against God and Moses, "²Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and ³we loathe this miserable food."

The Bronze Serpent

6 ⁴The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and ⁵they bit the people, so that ⁶many people of Israel died.

7 ⁷So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; ⁸intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us." And Moses interceded for the people.

8 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a ⁹fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live."

9 And Moses made a ¹⁰bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

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Numbers 21:4-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 21

This chapter gives an account of the defeat of King Arad, the Canaanite, Nu 21:1-3 of the murmurings of the children of Israel, because of difficulties in travelling round, the land of Edom, for which they were punished with fiery serpents, Nu 21:4-6 and how that upon their repentance a brazen serpent was ordered to be made, and to be erected on a pole, that whoever looked to it might live, Nu 21:7-9 and of the several journeys and stations of the children of Israel, until they came to the land of the Amorites, Nu 21:10-20, when they sent a message to Sihon their king, to desire him to grant them a passage through his country; but he refusing, they fought with him, smote him, and possessed his land, concerning which many proverbial sayings were used, Nu 21:21-32 and the chapter is concluded with the defeat of Og, king of Bashan, Nu 21:33-35.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 10

1. Deuteronomy 2:8
2. Numbers 14:2, 3
3. Numbers 11:6
4. Deuteronomy 8:15
5. Jeremiah 8:17
6. 1 Corinthians 10:9
7. Numbers 11:2; Psalms 78:34; Isaiah 26:16; Hosea 5:15
8. Exodus 8:8; 1 Samuel 12:19; Acts 8:24
9. Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6; John 3:14
10. 2 Kings 18:4; John 3:14, 15

Footnotes 5

[a]. Lit "Sea of Reeds"
[b]. Lit "soul of the people was short"
[c]. Lit "bread"
[d]. Lit "our soul loathes"
[e]. Lit "Make for yourself"