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From: Numbers 21:4-9

The Bronze Serpent

[4] From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the
land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. [5] And the people
spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe
this worthless food.” [6] Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and
they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [7] And the people came
to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and
against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Mo-
ses prayed for the people. [8] And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent,
and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
[9] So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit
any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

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Commentary:

21:4-9. The people continue to complain against Moses, this time because they
have to go right around Edom. But their protest is also directed against God.
When they are punished, Moses once again intercedes on their behalf. The
events covered in this account may have taken place in the region of Araba,
where copper mines existed from the 13th century BC onwards. In the town now
called Timna, an Egyptian shrine has been unearthed which contained a copper
serpent, indicating that some sort of magical power was attributed to these ser-
pents.

This passage in Numbers is interpreted in Wisdom 16:5-12, where the point is
emphasized that it was not the bronze serpent that cured them but the mercy
of God; the serpent was a sign of the salvation which God offers all men. The
bronze serpent is mentioned later, in the Gospel, as typifying Christ raised up
on the cross, the cause of salvation for those who look at him with faith: “As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted
up; that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15) When
Christ is raised above all human things, he draws them towards himself; so his
glorification is the means whereby all mankind obtain healing for evermore.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.