Numbers 21:8

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey ⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!" ⁶So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died. ⁷Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Intercede with the LORD to take the snakes away from us." So Moses interceded for the people. ⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live."⁹So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze serpent, he would recover.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 106:43-45, Psalms 145:8

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 18:4 - the brazen serpent Psalms 107:20 - healed Isaiah 45:22 - Look Luke 6:19 - sought Luke 24:44 - in the law John 5:46 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 19:3
But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Genesis 26:30
So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

Genesis 29:22
So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.

Genesis 40:20
On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he held a feast for all his officials, and in their presence he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

Judges 14:10
Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.

Judges 14:12
"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.

1 Samuel 1:22
but Hannah did not go. "After the boy is weaned," she said to her husband, "I will take him to appear before the LORD and to stay there always."

1 Samuel 25:36
When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

2 Samuel 3:20
When Abner and twenty of his men came to David at Hebron, David held a feast for them.

1 Kings 3:15
Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Make thee a fiery serpent - i. e. a serpent resembling in appearance the reptiles which attacked the people. The resemblance was of the essence of the symbolism (compare 1 Samuel 6:5). As the brass serpent represented the instrument of their chastisement, so the looking unto it at God’s word denoted acknowledgment of their sin, longing for deliverance from its penalty, and faith in the means appointed by God for healing. In the serpent of brass, harmless itself, but made in the image of the creature that is accursed above others Genesis 3:14, the Christian fathers rightly see a figure of Him John 3:14-15 who though “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” Hebrews 7:26, was yet “made sin” 2 Corinthians 5:21, and “made a curse for us” Galatians 3:13. And the eye of faith fixed on Him beholds the manifestation at once of the deserts of sin, of its punishment imminent and deprecated, and of the method of its remission devised by God Himself.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 21:8. Make thee a fiery serpent — Literally, make thee a seraph.

And put it upon a pole — על נס al nes, upon a standard or ensign.