Numbers 21:1–9

Destruction of Canaanite Cities

¹Then the Canaanite, the king of ^aArad, who lived in the ¹Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of ²Atharim, and he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

²So ^aIsrael made a vow to Yahweh and said, “If You will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”

³Then Yahweh heard the voice of Israel and gave the Canaanites over; so they devoted them and their cities to destruction. Thus the name of the place was called ^1aHormah.

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way to the ¹Red Sea, to ^ago around the land of Edom; and the ²people became impatient on the way.

⁵And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “^aWhy have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no ¹food and no water, and ^2bwe loathe this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

^6aSo Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and ^bthey bit the people so that ^cmany people of Israel died.

^7aThen the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you; ^bpray to Yahweh, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses prayed for the people.

⁸Then Yahweh said to Moses, “¹Make a ^afiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it, will live.”

⁹And Moses made a ^abronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it happened, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.