Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Fiery serpents - השרפים הנחשים hannechashim hasseraphim . I have observed before, on Gen. iii., 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 Gen. iii. 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

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

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?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole 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^F18De Animal. l. 10. c. 13. 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^F19Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 180. , 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^F20Herodot. Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 15. Aelian. de Animal. l. 2. c. 38. Mela, l. 3. c. 9. Solin. Polyhistor, c. 45. & alii. , 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^F21Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 109. says they are nowhere but in Arabia, and also^F23Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 76. 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^F24Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 13. col. 423. 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^F25Polyhist. c. 45. 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^F26Apud Scheuchzer, Physic. Sacr. vol. 2. p. 386. , 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^F1Polyhist. c. 40. says, this kind of serpent kills with thirst; Aristotle^F2Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 29. 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.

Geneva Study Bible

(d) For they that were bitten by them were so inflamed by the poison of them, that they died.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people — That part of the desert where the Israelites now were - near the head of the gulf of Akaba - is greatly infested with venomous reptiles, of various kinds, particularly lizards, which raise themselves in the air and swing themselves from branches; and scorpions, which, being in the habit of lying in long grass, are particularly dangerous to the barelegged, sandaled people of the East. The only known remedy consists in sucking the wound, or, in the case of cattle, in the application of ammonia. The exact species of serpents that caused so great mortality among the Israelites cannot be ascertained. They are said to have been “fiery,” an epithet applied to them either from their bright, vivid color, or the violent inflammation their bite occasioned.

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

There is a striking connection between the sin and the punishment. The people murmured for want of water; and here the LORD sent them a thirst which no water could satisfy. It should be observed that those fiery flying serpents were nothing new; the wilderness was full of them. So Moses tells us: Deuteronomy 8:15. But it should seem, that by the divine interposition, never before this had they annoyed the LORD'S Israel. Reader, do not forget that it is sin which hath thrown down the sovereignty of man over the inferior creatures. Genesis 1:25, compared with Genesis 3:17-19. But we must not stop here, in our view of this subject, the LORD JESUS hath given us so sweet and precious a comment upon this part of Israel's history, that I venture to persuade myself the Reader will not be disposed to pass it over too hastily. Reader! I would beg you to remark with me somewhat more particularly, the striking affinity in this case of Israel of old, to the Israel of GOD in all ages. The people were bitten with fiery serpents, of which many died. And what is sin in all its various shapes, but the venomous bite and poison of that old serpent the devil. So he is called. Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2. As a serpent he appeared to our first mother. Genesis 3:1. And his darts are called fiery darts. Ephesians 6:16. And what are the effects of his deceptions, but death, temporal death: for sin hath entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death hath passed upon all men because that all have sinned: Romans 5:12. Spiritual death: for unless quickened by the LORD, all are by nature dead in trespasses and sins: Ephesians 2:1. And eternal death; for the separation both of soul and body from GOD, which is the sure consequence to those who live and die unawakened and unregenerated in time, is the eternal death of the miserable forever. And all these are the effects of the serpent's fiery darts, like the bite of the serpent in the wilderness.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Fiery serpents — There were many such in this wilderness, which having been hitherto restrained by God, are now let loose and sent among them. They are called fiery from their effects, because their poison caused an intolerable heat and burning and thirst, which was aggravated with this circumstance of the place, that here was no water, Numbers 21:5.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Numbers 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Ver. 6. Fiery serpents.] Heb., Seraphim; from their burning heat, whereby these ungrateful Israelites, that causelessly cried out of thirst, had somewhat given them to cry for. Their tongues, so full of deadly poison, and set on fire from hell, are now parched and scorched with venomous heat and torments, the likest hell of any other. These serpents are here called seraphims: that old serpent the devil can transform himself into an angel of light.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Such there were many in this wilderness, Deuteronomy 8:15, which having been hitherto restrained by God, are now let loose and sent among them. They are called fiery from their effects, because their poison caused an intolerable heat, and burning, and thirst in the bodies of the Israelites, which was aggravated with this circumstance of the place, that here was no water, Numbers 21:5.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

6.The Lord sent fiery serpents — The Alexandrine Septuagint renders “fiery” by θανατουντες, deadly. Popularly this “serpent” is erroneously identified with the fiery flying serpent of Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6. As all the plagues of Egypt were the intensification of natural evils, so we may suppose that these serpents existed in the region of the camp, and were gathered to this place to afflict the murmuring Israelites. They are called fiery because of the inflammation resulting from their poisonous bite. The Greeks have three different names for snakes, derived from verbs signifying to burn. These serpents may have had a fiery appearance also. Schubert saw in that vicinity a very mottled snake of a

large size, marked with fiery red spots, which belonged to the most poisonous species, and he was told by the Bedouins that they were very common there. The region east and south of Mount Seir still abounds in venomous reptiles, especially lizards, which raise themselves in the air and swing from shrubs, and scorpions lying in ambush in the grass, which sting the barelegged, sandalled natives. It is not possible to point out the species of deadly serpents which afflicted Israel. According to Niebuhr, there is in the Arabian desert a small, slender species called baetan, spotted black and white, whose bite is instant death causing the body to swell in an extraordinary manner. The cerastes is another venomous species frequenting Arabia.

Much people’ died — With these few words before us, it needs no very strong imagination to portray the magnitude of this calamity and the intensity of the suffering. The agonies of the bitten, the vain attempts to heal, the groans of the dying, the burial of the dead, the torturing terrors of the living, in momentary dread of the fatal wound, all come vividly before our minds. We are prepared for the penitence expressed in the next verse.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Numbers 21:6. Fiery serpents — Hebrew, נחשׁים, nechashim, the plural of the word translated serpent, Genesis 3:1, where Moses speaks of the temptation and fall of our first parents, and which, when intended of a living creature, we believe, always means a serpent of one species or other, and is accordingly uniformly so rendered, not only by our translators, in the Scriptures, but by the Seventy, and in most or all other versions whatever; and, what certainly ought to have great weight with Christians, by the evangelists and apostles, whenever they quote or refer to those passages of the Old Testament where the word occurs: see on Genesis 3:1. There were many such serpents as Moses here speaks of in this wilderness, which, having been hitherto restrained by God, were now let loose and sent among them: see Jeremiah 8:17. They are called fiery from their effects, because their poison caused an intolerable heat, burning, and thirst, which was aggravated with this circumstance of the place, that there was no water, Numbers 21:5.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Fiery serpents. They are so called, because they that were bitten by them were burnt with a violent heat. (Challoner) --- Hence they are called seraphim, by which name an order of angels are known. The Egyptians adored a serpent which they called serapis, at Rome; and they represented their god serapis, with a serpent entwining a monstrous figure, composed of a lion, a dog, and a wolf. (Macrobius, Saturn i. 20.) The seraph was a winged serpent, Isaias xiv. 29. xxx. 6. Such often infested Egypt, in spring, coming from Arabia, unless they were intercepted by the ibis. Their wings resembled those of bats. (Herodotus, ii. 76.; Mela, &c.) God probably sent some of this description into the camp of the Israelites. (Calmet) --- Some call them prœster, (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxiv. 13,) from their burning; others the hydra, or, when out of water, the chershydra, the venom of which is most dangerous. The Septuagint style them simply, "the destroying, or deadly serpents." See Bochart, T. ii. B. iii. 13.; Deuteronomy viii. 15.; Wisdom xvi. 5, 10.) (Haydock)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

fiery serpents = burning. Hebrew. nacheshim saraphim. Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), App-6, because the effect of the bite was a burning sensation. Hebrew. saraph (see App-43.) The Seraphim so called in Isaiah 6:2, because they were burning ones: hence the name for these serpents. In the same way nachash, shining one, is also used for serpents, because they are shining ones in appearance. See Genesis 3:1, and compare App-19.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

The Lord sent fiery serpents, [ han

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) And the Lord sent fiery serpents . . . —Hebrew, the serpents, the seraphim (i.e., the burning ones). (See Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 30:6.) The word appears to denote a particular kind of serpent, as in the following verse. Some think that they were so called because of the bright fiery red upon their heads; others because of the blazing sunbeams on their scales; and others because of their inflammatory and poisonous bite. Venomous snakes are said to abound still in the Arabah.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Genesis 3:14,15; Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 14:29; 30:6; Jeremiah 8:17; Amos 9:3,4; 1 Corinthians 10:9

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

6.And the Lord sent fiery serpents. Their ingratitude was justly and profitably chastised by this punishment; for they were practically taught that it was only through God’s paternal care that they had been previously free from innumerable evils, and that He was possessed of manifold forms of punishment, whereby to take vengeance on the wicked.

Although deserts are full of many poisonous animals, still it is probable that these serpents suddenly arose, and were created for this special purpose; as if God, in His determination to correct the people’s pride, should call into being new enemies to trouble them. For they were made to feel how great their folly was to rebel against God, when they were not able to cope with the serpents. This, then, was an admirable plan for humbling them, contemptuously to bring these serpents into the field against them, and thus to convince them of their weakness. Consequently, they both confess their guilt and acknowledge that there was no other remedy for them except to obtain pardon from God. These two things, as we are aware, are necessary in order to appease God, first, that the sinner should be dissatisfied with himself and self-condemned; and, secondly, that he should seek to be reconciled to God. The people seem faithfully to fulfill both of these conditions, when they of their own accord acknowledge their guilt, and humbly have recourse to God’s mercy. It is through the influence of terror that they implore the prayers of Moses, since they count themselves unworthy of favor, unless an advocate (patronus) should intercede for them. This would, indeed, be erroneous, that those who are conscience-struck should invite an intercessor to stand between them and God, unless they, too, should unite their own prayers with his; for nothing is more contrary to faith than such a state of alarm as prevents us from calling upon God. Still the kindness of Moses, and his accustomed gentleness is perceived by this, that he is so readily disposed to listen to these wicked ones; and God also, on His part, shews that the prayer of a righteous man is not unavailing, when He heals the wound He had inflicted. ⁽¹²¹⁾