Numbers 21:7

7 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee: pray therefore to the Lord, and let him take away the serpent from us.

Numbers 21:7 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:7

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned,
&c.] Being bitten with serpents, and some having died, the rest were frightened, and came and made an humble acknowledgment of their sins to Moses:

for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee;
murmuring at their being brought out of Egypt, and because they had no better provision in the wilderness; concluding they should die there for want, and never enter into the land of Canaan, of which evils they were now sensible, and confessed them:

pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us;
or "the serpent" ^F3, in the singular, which is put for the plural, as it often is; or the plague of the serpent, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it might cease, and they be no more distressed by them: they were sensible they came from God, and that none could remove them but him; and knowing that Moses was powerful in prayer, and had interest with God, they entreat him to be their intercessor, though they had spoken against him and used him ill:

and Moses prayed for the people;
which proves him to be of a meek and forgiving spirit; who, though he had been so sadly reflected on, yet readily undertakes to pray to God for them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (vxn ta) "serpentem", Montanus; "hunc serpentem", Piscator,

Numbers 21:7 In-Context

5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Why is this? Hast thou brought us ought of Egypt to slay us in the wilderness? for there is not bread nor water; and our soul loathes this light bread.

6 And the Lord sent among the people deadly serpents, and they bit the people, and much people of the children of Israel died.

7 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee: pray therefore to the Lord, and let him take away the serpent from us.

8 And Moses prayed to the Lord for the people; and the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a serpent, and put it on a signal- ; and it shall come to pass that whenever a serpent shall bite a man, every one bitten that looks upon it shall live.

9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a signal- : and it came to pass that whenever a serpent bit a man, and he looked on the brazen serpent, he lived.