Numbers 21:2-12

2 So ¹Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, "If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities."

3 The LORD heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called ²Hormah.

4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red * Sea, to ³go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

5 The people spoke against God and Moses, "⁴Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and ⁵we loathe this miserable food."

The Bronze Serpent

6 ⁶The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and ⁷they bit the people, so that ⁸many people of Israel died.

7 ⁹So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; ¹⁰intercede 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 ¹¹fiery 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 ¹²bronze 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.

10 ¹³Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

11 They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite * Moab, to the east *.

12 ¹⁴From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.

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Numbers 21:2-12 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 14

1. Genesis 28:20; Judges 11:30
2. Numbers 14:45
3. Deuteronomy 2:8
4. Numbers 14:2, 3
5. Numbers 11:6
6. Deuteronomy 8:15
7. Jeremiah 8:17
8. 1 Corinthians 10:9
9. Numbers 11:2; Psalms 78:34; Isaiah 26:16; Hosea 5:15
10. Exodus 8:8; 1 Samuel 12:19; Acts 8:24
11. Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6; John 3:14
12. 2 Kings 18:4; John 3:14, 15
13. Numbers 33:43, 44
14. Numbers 33:45

Footnotes 10

[a]. Lit "devote to destruction"
[b]. Lit "devoted to destruction"
[c]. I.e. a devoted thing; or Destruction
[d]. Lit "Sea of Reeds"
[e]. Lit "soul of the people was short"
[f]. Lit "bread"
[g]. Lit "our soul loathes"
[h]. Lit "Make for yourself"
[i]. Lit "sunrise"
[j]. I.e. a dry ravine except during rainy season