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Wycliffe Bible
Numbers 21:6
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The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Yisra'el died.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
And Yahweh sent among the people poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many people from Israel died.
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
So the Lord sent them poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many of the Israelites died.
So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.
Then the LORD sent fiery (burning) serpents among the people; and they bit the people, and many Israelites died.
Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Wherefore the Lorde sent fierie serpents among ye people, which stung the people: so that many of the people of Israel died.
So Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.
Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes that bit and killed many of them.
(LY: vi) In response, Adonai sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit the people, and many of Isra'el's people died.
Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people. The snakes bit the people, and many of the Israelites died.
And the LORD sent fiery serpents against the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many Israelites were bitten and died.
Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died.
And Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people; and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died.
Than sent the LORDE fyrie serpentes amonge the people, which bote the peple, so that there dyed moch people in Israel.
And Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Then the Lord sent poison-snakes among the people; and their bites were a cause of death to numbers of the people of Israel.
Wherfore the Lorde sent fierie serpentes among the people, which stong them: and much people of Israel dyed.
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
And the Lord sent fierie serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.
And the Lord sent among the people deadly serpents, and they bit the people, and much people of the children of Israel died.
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.
And Jehovah sendeth among the people the burning serpents, and they bite the people, and much people of Israel die;
And Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.
Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.
Then the Lord sent snakes with a bite of poison among the people. They bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
And Yahweh sent among the people the poisonous serpents, and they bit the people, - and much people out of Israel died.
Wherefore the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, which bit them and killed many of them.
Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
So God sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them and many in Israel died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke out against God and you. Pray to God ; ask him to take these snakes from us." Moses prayed for the people.
The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 3:14, Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 8:15, Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 30:6, Jeremiah 8:17, Amos 9:3, Amos 9:4, 1 Corinthians 10:9
Reciprocal: Luke 24:27 - beginning John 2:7 - Fill Acts 28:5 - felt 1 Corinthians 11:30 - many Hebrews 2:2 - every
Cross-References
Abraham felde doun on his face, and leiyede in his hert, and seide, Gessist thou, whethir a sone schal be borun to a man of an hundrid yeer, and Sara of nynti yeer schal bere child?
and God seide to hym, Be it not seyn scharp to thee on the child, and on thin handmayde; alle thingis whiche Sare seith to thee, here thou hir vois, for in Isaac seed schal be clepid to thee;
And whanne the watir in the botel was endid, sche castide awei the child vndur a tre that was there;
and dwellide in the deseert of Faran; and his modir took to him a wijf of the lond of Egipt.
In the same tyme Abymelech, and Ficol, prince of his oost, seide to Abraham, God is with thee in alle thingis whiche thou doist;
And so Abraham took scheep and oxun, and yaf to Abymalech, and bothe smyten a boond of pees.
And Abraham settide seuene ewe lambren of the flok asidis half.
Which makith a bareyn womman dwelle in the hous; a glad modir of sones.
Thanne oure mouth was fillid with ioye; and oure tunge with ful out ioiyng. Thanne thei schulen seie among hethene men; The Lord magnefiede to do with hem.
Whether a womman may foryete hir yonge child, that sche haue not merci on the sone of hir wombe? thouy sche foryetith, netheles Y schal not foryete thee.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people,.... Of which there were great numbers in the deserts of Arabia, and about the Red sea; but hitherto the Israelites were protected from them by the cloud about them, but sinning, the Lord suffered them to come among them, to punish them; these are called fiery, either from their colour, for in Arabia, as there were serpents of a golden colour, as Aelianus r relates, to which the brazen serpent, after made, bore some likeness, so there were others in the same parts of Arabia of a red or scarlet colour, as Diodorus Siculus says s, of a span long, and their bite entirely incurable; or else they are so called from the effect of them, exciting heat and thirst in those they bit; so Jarchi says, they are so called because they burn with the poison of their teeth: these, very probably, were flying ones, as may seem from Isaiah 14:29 and being sent of God, might come flying among the people and bite them; and such there were in the fenny and marshy parts of Arabia, of which many writers speak t, as flying from those parts into Egypt, where they used to be met by a bird called Ibis, which killed them, and for that reason was had in great veneration by the Egyptians; and Herodotus u says they are nowhere but in Arabia, and also w that they of that kind of serpents, which are called Hydri, their wings are not feathered, but like the wings of bats, and this Bochart x takes to be here meant:
and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died; for, as before related from Diodorus Siculus, their bites were altogether incurable; and Solinus y says, of the same Arabian flying serpents, that their poison is so quick, that death follows before the pain can be felt; and of that kind of serpent, the Hydrus, it is said by Leo Africanus z, that their poison is most pernicious, and that there is no other remedy against the bite of them, but to cut off that part of the member bitten, before the poison can penetrate into the other parts of the body: the Dipsas, another kind of serpent, which others are of opinion is designed, by biting, brings immediately a thirst on persons, intolerable and almost not extinguishable, and a deadly one, unless help is most speedily had; and if this was the case here it was very bad indeed, since there was no water: Solinus a says, this kind of serpent kills with thirst; Aristotle b speaks of a serpent some call the sacred one, and that whatsoever it bites putrefies immediately all around it: these serpents, and their bites, may be emblems of the old serpent the devil, and of his fiery darts, and of sin brought in by him, and which he tempts unto, the effects of which are terrible and deadly, unless prevented by the grace of God.
r De Animal. l. 10. c. 13. s Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 180. t Herodot. Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 15. Aelian. de Animal. l. 2. c. 38. Mela, l. 3. c. 9. Solin. Polyhistor, c. 45. & alii. u Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 109. w Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 76. x Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 13. col. 423. y Polyhist. c. 45. z Apud Scheuchzer, Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 386. a Polyhist. c. 40. b Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 29.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Fiery serpents - The epithet Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6 denotes the inflammatory effect of their bite. The peninsula of Sinai, and not least, the Arabah, abounds in mottled snakes of large size, marked with fiery red spots and wavy stripes, which belong to the most poisonous species, as the formation of the teeth clearly show.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Numbers 21:6. Fiery serpents — הנחשים השרפים hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Genesis 3:1, that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Genesis 3:1 is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, Isaiah 6:2; Isaiah 6:6; but as it comes from the root שרף saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text. It is likely that St. Paul alludes to the seraphim, Hebrews 1:7: Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a FLAME of FIRE. The animals mentioned here by Moses may have been called fiery because of the heat, violent inflammation, and thirst, occasioned by their bite; and consequently, if serpents, they were of the prester or dipsas species, whose bite, especially that of the former, occasioned a violent inflammation through the whole body, and a fiery appearance of the countenance. The poet Lucan has well expressed this terrible effect of the bite of the prester, and also of the dipsas, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, which, for the sake of those who may not have the work at hand, I shall here insert.
Of the mortal effects of the bite of the dipsas in the deserts of Libya he gives the following description: -
"Signiferum juvenem Tyrrheni sanguinis Aulum
Torta caput retro dipsas calcata momordit.
Vix dolor aut sensus dentis fuit: ipsaque laeti
Frons caret invidia: nec quidquam plaga minatur.
Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas
Ignis edax, calidaque incendit viscera tabe.
Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum
Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato
Coepit: defessos iret qui sudor in artus
Non fuit, atque oculos lacrymarum vena refugit."
Aulus, a noble youth of Tyrrhene blood,
Who bore the standard, on a dipsas trod;
Backward the wrathful serpent bent her head,
And, fell with rage, the unheeded wrong repaid.
Scarce did some little mark of hurt remain,
And scarce he found some little sense of pain.
Nor could he yet the danger doubt, nor fear
That death with all its terrors threatened there.
When lo! unseen, the secret venom spreads,
And every nobler part at once invades;
Swift flames consume the marrow and the brain,
And the scorched entrails rage with burning pain;
Upon his heart the thirsty poisons prey,
And drain the sacred juice of life away.
No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue,
But cleaving to the parched roof it hung;
No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat,
To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat.
Rowe.
The effects of the bite of the prester are not less terrible:
"Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri
Percussit prester: illi rubor igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura,
Miscens cuncta tumor toto jam corpore major:
Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra
Effiatur sanies, late tollente veneno."
A fate of different kind Nasidius found,
A burning prester gave the deadly wound;
And straight, a sudden flame began to spread,
And paint his visage with a glowing red.
With swift expansion swells the bloated skin.
Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen;
While the fair human form lies lost within.
The puffy poison spreads, and leaves around,
Till all the man is in the monster drowned.
Rowe.
Bochart supposes that the hydrus or chersydrus is meant; a serpent that lives in marshy places, the bite of which produces the most terrible inflammations, burning heat, fetid vomitings, and a putrid solution of the whole body. See his works, vol. iii., col. 421. It is more likely to have been a serpent of the prester or dipsas kind, as the wilderness through which the Israelites passed did neither afford rivers nor marshes, though Bochart endeavors to prove that there might have been marshes in that part; but his arguments have very little weight. Nor is there need of a water serpent as long as the prester or dipsas, which abound in the deserts of Libya, might have abounded in the deserts of Arabia also. But very probably the serpents themselves were immediately sent by God for the chastisement of this rebellious people. The cure was certainly preternatural; this no person doubts; and why might not the agent be so, that inflicted the disease?
