Bible Strands
Numbers 21:9
So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports Moses' action in the wilderness, executing the LORD's command from the preceding verse. The Israelites are under lethal judgment from fiery serpent bites.
The words — נְחַ֣שׁ (nechash), "a snake," is from the root נחש (nchsh), "to peer, to divine" — the creature is named for the act of looking. הַ/נֵּ֑ס (ha-nes), translated "pole," is literally "the standard," the same term used for the tabernacle's identifying pole.
The thread — John 3:14 picks up the image directly: "as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up." John 6:40 extends the mechanism from looking to believing in the Son for eternal life.
Why it lands — The one who is already bitten is not asked to perform a ritual, offer a sacrifice, or prove worthiness. The ask is a single act: look.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
Cross-references
- John 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
- John 6:40 For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
- Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
- John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”
- Isaiah 45:22 Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
- Romans 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Romans 1:17 For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
- Romans 5:20 The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,