Bamidbar 21:8

8 And Hashem said unto Moshe, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

Bamidbar 21:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 21:8

And the Lord said unto Moses
Out of the cloud; or, it may be, Moses went into the sanctuary, and there prayed, and the Lord answered him from between the cherubim:

make them a fiery serpent;
not a real one, but the likeness of one, one that should very much resemble the fiery serpents Israel had been bitten with:

and set it upon a pole;
a standard, banner, or ensign, as the word signifies; perhaps meaning one of the poles on which their ensigns were carried: the Targum of Jonathan renders it, on an high place, that so it might be seen by all in the camp:

and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he
looketh upon it, shall live;
which is very wonderful, that by looking to the figure of a serpent, men should be cured of the bites of real ones, and which bites were deadly; the virtue of healing could not come from the figure, but from God, who appointed it to be made, the Targum of Jonathan adds, that one bitten should live,

``if he directed his heart to the Word of the Lord,''

even to that divine Logos or Word of God, whose lifting up was figured hereby; see ( John 3:14 ) .

Bamidbar 21:8 In-Context

6 And Hashem sent fiery nechashim among the people, and they bit the people; and Am rav miYisroel died.

7 Therefore HaAm came to Moshe, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against Hashem, and against thee; pray unto Hashem that He take away the Nachash from us. And Moshe davened for the people.

8 And Hashem said unto Moshe, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

9 And Moshe made a nachash of nechoshet, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a nachash had bitten any man, when he beheld the nachash hanechoshet, then he lived [see Yn 3:14-15].

10 And the Bnei Yisroel set out, and encamped in Ovot.