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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
- NASB So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
- NLT So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses made a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and those who looked at it after being bitten lived. God's promised remedy worked exactly as He said.
Overview
The bronze serpent became the visible object of faith through which God healed His people. Looking, an act of humble trust, was the only requirement, showing salvation rests on God's grace received by faith. This lifted-up serpent prefigures Christ lifted up on the cross, where all who look to Him in faith are saved from the deadly poison of sin (John 3:14-15).
Cross-references & the web
Type → fulfillment
- John 3:14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Cross-references · 13
- John 3:14–15And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
- John 6:40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
- Heb 12:2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 2 Kgs 18:4He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
- John 12:32And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
- Isa 45:22Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
- Rom 8:3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
- 2 Cor 5:21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
- Rom 1:17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
- Rom 5:20–21Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
- Zech 12:10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
- 1 Jn 3:8He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
- John 1:29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 21:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.