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The Bronze Serpent

When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. ²Then Israel made a vow to the L ord and said, “If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns.” ³The L ord listened to the voice of Israel, and handed over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their towns; so the place was called Hormah.

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. ⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” ⁶Then the L ord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. ⁷The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the L ord and against you; pray to the L ord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸And the L ord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

The Journey to Moab

¹⁰ The Israelites set out, and camped in Oboth. ¹¹They set out from Oboth, and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering Moab toward the sunrise. ¹²From there they set out, and camped in the Wadi Zered. ¹³From there they set out, and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the wilderness that extends from the boundary of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the L ord,

“Waheb in Suphah and the wadis.

The Arnon ¹⁵and the slopes of the wadis

that extend to the seat of Ar,

and lie along the border of Moab.”

¹⁶ From there they continued to Beer; that is the well of which the L ord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” ¹⁷Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—

the well that the leaders sank,

that the nobles of the people dug,

with the scepter, with the staff.”

From the wilderness to Mattanah, ¹⁹from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, ²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that overlooks the wasteland.

King Sihon Defeated

²¹ Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying, ²²“Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of any well; we will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.” ²³But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness; he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. ²⁴Israel put him to the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for the boundary of the Ammonites was strong. ²⁵Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. ²⁶For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and captured all his land as far as the Arnon. ²⁷Therefore the ballad singers say,

“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;

let the city of Sihon be established.

For fire came out from Heshbon,

flame from the city of Sihon.

It devoured Ar of Moab,

and swallowed up the heights of the Arnon.

Woe to you, O Moab!

You are undone, O people of Chemosh!

He has made his sons fugitives,

and his daughters captives,

to an Amorite king, Sihon.

So their posterity perished

from Heshbon to Dibon,

and we laid waste until fire spread to Medeba.”

³¹ Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites. ³²Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they captured its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

King Og Defeated

³³ Then they turned and went up the road to Bashan; and King Og of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. ³⁴But the L ord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him; for I have given him into your hand, with all his people, and all his land. You shall do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.” ³⁵So they killed him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

4. And they journeyed from mount Hor. This also is narrated in their praise, that they bore the weariness of a long and circuitous march, when they were already worn down by their wanderings for forty years. Moses, therefore, tells us that, since God had forbidden them to pass the borders of Edom, they went by another way; but immediately afterwards he adds, that they basely rebelled, without being provoked to do so by any new cause. They had before been rebellious under the pressure of hunger or thirst, or some other inconvenience; but now, when there were no grounds for doing so, they malignantly exasperate themselves against God. Some understand that they were afflicted in mind because of the way, ¹¹⁷¹¹⁷ Heb. בדרך Lat, in via. A.V. “because of the way.” “In often noteth the cause of a thing; as, ‘the Lord’s soul was grieved in (that is, for, or because of) the misery of Israel,’ Judges 10:16; or, according to the like phrase in Zechariah 11:8, their soul ‘loatheth the way,’ both for the longsomeness of it, and for the many wants and troubles they found therein.” — Ainsworth in loco. so that the ב, beth, indicates the cause of their grief and trouble. It might, indeed, be the case that their passage through the mountains was steep and difficult; but a pleasant region was almost in sight, gently to attract them onward. Again, they falsely complain of want of water, in which respect God had already applied a remedy. Nothing, then, could be more unfair than odiously to recall to memory a past evil, in which they had experienced the special aid of God. But their depravity is more thoroughly laid open in their loathing of the manna, as a food affording but little nutriment, or contemptible.

The verb ¹¹⁸¹¹⁸ A. V., “discouraged;” margin, “or, grieved; Heb. shortened.” קצר, To shorten, to cut short, to cut off, and hence to reap. S.M. says, “Their spirit was shortened, i.e., became impatient; being a species of antithesis to longanimity, or long forbearing.” — W. קצר, katzar, is used first, which signifies to constrain; thus some explain it, that they were rendered anxious by distress. But since the same word is used for to shorten, others translate it that their minds were broken down with weariness, so as to faint by the way. In any case, a voluntary bitterness is indicated, whereby they were possessed, so that their alacrity in advancing altogether failed them. The verb ¹¹⁹¹¹⁹ A. V., “loatheth.” קצה is likewise to cut off, but is said by the lexicographers to borrow a meaning in this instance from קוף to loathe, and be weary of. It would be simpler to say that קצה is the praet. 3d. pers. of קוף, and that a feminine verb is required by the subs. נפשנו — W , קצה, katzah, which Jerome renders sickens, is not used simply for disgust, but signifies that weariness which excruciates or agonizes the mind.

They call the manna “light” food; as much as to say that it inflates rather than satisfies or nourishes; or, as I deem more probable, the word קלקל, kelokel, is used metaphorically for vile, or contemptible, and valueless.

¹¹⁷ Heb. בדרך Lat, in via. A.V. “because of the way.” “In often noteth the cause of a thing; as, ‘the Lord’s soul was grieved in (that is, for, or because of) the misery of Israel,’ Judges 10:16; or, according to the like phrase in Zechariah 11:8, their soul ‘loatheth the way,’ both for the longsomeness of it, and for the many wants and troubles they found therein.” — Ainsworth in loco.

¹¹⁸ A. V., “discouraged;” margin, “or, grieved; Heb. shortened.” קצר, To shorten, to cut short, to cut off, and hence to reap. S.M. says, “Their spirit was shortened, i.e., became impatient; being a species of antithesis to longanimity, or long forbearing.” — W.

¹¹⁹ A. V., “loatheth.” קצה is likewise to cut off, but is said by the lexicographers to borrow a meaning in this instance from קוף to loathe, and be weary of. It would be simpler to say that קצה is the praet. 3d. pers. of קוף, and that a feminine verb is required by the subs. נפשנו — W