Numbers 21:1-11 ▼

1 And the Canaanite, king of Arad, dwelling in the south, hears that Israel has come the way of the Atharim, and he fights against Israel, and takes [some] of them captive.

2 And Israel vows a vow to YHWH and says, “If You certainly give this people into my hand, then I have devoted their cities”;

3 and YHWH listens to the voice of Israel and gives up the Canaanite, and he devotes them and their cities, and calls the name of the place Hormah.

4 And they journey from Mount Hor, the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people is short in the way,

5 and the people speak against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in a wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water, and our soul has been weary of this light bread.”

6 And YHWH sends the burning serpents among the people, and they bite the people, and many people of Israel die;

7 and the people come to Moses and say, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against YHWH and against you; pray to YHWH that He turns the serpent aside from us”; and Moses prays in behalf of the people.

8 And YHWH says to Moses, “Make a burning [serpent] for yourself, and set it on an ensign; and it has been, everyone who is bitten and has seen it—he has lived.”

9 And Moses makes a serpent of bronze, and sets it on the ensign, and it has been, if the serpent has bitten any man, and he has looked expectingly to the serpent of bronze—he has lived.

10 And the sons of Israel journey and encamp in Oboth.

11 And they journey from Oboth and encamp in Ije-Abarim, in the wilderness that [is] on the front of Moab, at the rising of the sun.