Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

21:4-9 The Bronze Snake. A new day may have dawned, but old habits are not eradicated. The people once again grumble about their food and are punished: this time by poisonous snakes. As an antidote, Moses makes a bronze snake, which cures anyone who looks at it.

21:9 bronze serpent. The Hebrew term translated "bronze" can also mean "copper" (see ESV footnote). The area through which the Israelites were traveling had copper mines, and archaeologists have found a 5-inch-long (13 cm) copper snake in a Midianite shrine at Timna, so it seems likely that copper is meant here. The redness of copper suggested atonement (see 19:1-10), so symbolically it was well chosen for this occasion. Jesus compares his own death on the cross to the uplifted serpent (John 3:14-15). By the time of King Hezekiah of Judah (c. 715 b.c.), this copper serpent had become an object of worship among the Israelites and had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4).

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