Numbers 21:1–9

Arad Conquered

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

²So ^aIsrael made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will ¹utterly destroy their cities.”

³The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they ¹utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called ^2aHormah.

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

⁵The people spoke against God and 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

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

^7aSo the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; ^bintercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, “¹Make a ^afiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”

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