Numbers 21:3-13

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 ¹Hormah.

4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red * Sea, to ²go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

5 The people spoke against God and Moses, "³Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and ⁴we loathe this miserable food."

The Bronze Serpent

6 ⁵The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and ⁶they bit the people, so that ⁷many people of Israel died.

7 ⁸So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; ⁹intercede 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 ¹⁰fiery 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 ¹¹bronze 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 ¹²Now 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 ¹³From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.

13 From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites, ¹⁴for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

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Numbers 21:3-13 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. Numbers 14:45
2. Deuteronomy 2:8
3. Numbers 14:2, 3
4. Numbers 11:6
5. Deuteronomy 8:15
6. Jeremiah 8:17
7. 1 Corinthians 10:9
8. Numbers 11:2; Psalms 78:34; Isaiah 26:16; Hosea 5:15
9. Exodus 8:8; 1 Samuel 12:19; Acts 8:24
10. Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6; John 3:14
11. 2 Kings 18:4; John 3:14, 15
12. Numbers 33:43, 44
13. Numbers 33:45
14. Numbers 22:36; Judges 11:18

Footnotes 9

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