Bibelkommentare

Arad, a king of the Canaanites, attacks Israel, and makes same prisoners, Numbers 21:1. They devote him and his people to destruction, Numbers 21:2; which they afterwards accomplished, Numbers 21:3. They journey from Hor, and are greatly discouraged, Numbers 21:4. They murmur against God and Moses, and loathe the manna, Numbers 21:5. The Lord sends fiery serpents among them, Numbers 21:6. They repent, and beg Moses to intercede for them, Numbers 21:7. The Lord directs him to make a brazen serpent, and set it on a pole, that the people might look on it and be healed, Numbers 21:8. Moses does so, and the people who beheld the brazen serpent lived, Numbers 21:9. They journey to Oboth, Ije-abarim, Zared, and Arnon, Numbers 21:10-13. A quotation from the book of the wars of the Lord, Numbers 21:14, Numbers 21:15. From Arnon they came to Beer, Numbers 21:16. Their song of triumph, Numbers 21:17-20. Moses sends messengers to the Amorites for permission to pass through their land, Numbers 21:21, Numbers 21:22. Sihon their king refuses, attacks Israel, is defeated, and all his cities destroyed, Numbers 21:23-26. The poetic proverbs made on the occasion, Numbers 21:27-30. Israel possesses the land of the Amorites, Numbers 21:31, Numbers 21:32. They are attacked by Og king of Bashan, Numbers 21:33. They defeat him, destroy his troops and family, and possess his land, Numbers 21:34, Numbers 21:35.

The way of the spies - אתרים atharim. Some think that this signifies the way that the spies took when they went to search the land. But this is impossible, as Dr. Kennicott justly remarks, because Israel had now marched from Meribah-Kadesh to Mount Hor, beyond Ezion-Gaber, and were turning round Edom to the south-east; and therefore the word is to be understood here as the name of a place.

The Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel - The whole of this verse appears to me to have been added after the days of Joshua. It is certain the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed at the time here spoken of, for this did not take place till after the death of Moses. If, instead of utterly destroyed them, ויחרם vaiyacharem, we translate they devoted them to utter destruction, it will make a good sense, and not repugnant to the Hebrew; though some think it more probable that the verse was added afterwards by Joshua or Ezra, in testimony of the fulfillment of God's promise; for Arad, who is mentioned as being destroyed here, is mentioned among those destroyed by Joshua long after, (see Joshua 12:14): but this is quite consistent with their being devoted to destruction, as this might be fulfilled any time after. See the note on Leviticus 27 (note).

This light bread - הקלקל hakkelokel, a word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat - stomach stuff.

Fiery serpents - הנחשים השרפים hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Genesis 3. that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Genesis 3.is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, Isaiah 6:2, Isaiah 6:6; but as it comes from the root שרף saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text. It is likely that St. Paul alludes to the seraphim, Hebrews 1:7 : Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a Flame Of Fire. The animals mentioned here by Moses may have been called fiery because of the heat, violent inflammation, and thirst, occasioned by their bite; and consequently, if serpents, they were of the prester or dipsas species, whose bite, especially that of the former, occasioned a violent inflammation through the whole body, and a fiery appearance of the countenance. The poet Lucan has well expressed this terrible effect of the bite of the prester, and also of the dipsas, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, which, for the sake of those who may not have the work at hand, I shall here insert.

Of the mortal effects of the bite of the dipsas in the deserts of Libya he gives the following description: -

"Signiferum juvenem Tyrrheni sanguinis Aulum

Torta caput retro dipsas calcata momordit.

Vix dolor aut sensus dentis fuit: ipsaque laeti

Frons caret invidia: nec quidquam plaga minatur.

Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas

Ignis edax, calidaque incendit viscera tabe.

Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum

Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato

Coepit: defessos iret qui sudor in artus

Non fuit, atque oculos lacrymarum vena refugit."

Aulus, a noble youth of Tyrrhene blood,

Who bore the standard, on a dipsas trod;

Backward the wrathful serpent bent her head,

And, fell with rage, the unheeded wrong repaid.

Scarce did some little mark of hurt remain,

And scarce he found some little sense of pain.

Nor could he yet the danger doubt, nor fear

That death with all its terrors threatened there.

When lo! unseen, the secret venom spreads,

And every nobler part at once invades;

Swift flames consume the marrow and the brain,

And the scorched entrails rage with burning pain;

Upon his heart the thirsty poisons prey,

And drain the sacred juice of life away.

No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue,

But cleaving to the parched roof it hung;

No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat,

To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat.

Rowe.

The effects of the bite of the prester are not less terrible:

"Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri

Percussit prester: illi rubor igneus ora

Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura,

Miscens cuncta tumor toto jam corpore major:

Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra

Effiatur sanies, late tollente veneno."

A fate of different kind Nasidius found,

A burning prester gave the deadly wound;

And straight, a sudden flame began to spread,

And paint his visage with a glowing red.

With swift expansion swells the bloated skin.

Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen;

While the fair human form lies lost within.

The puffy poison spreads, and leaves around,

Till all the man is in the monster drowned.

Rowe.

Bochart supposes that the hydrus or chersydrus is meant; a serpent that lives in marshy places, the bite of which produces the most terrible inflammations, burning heat, fetid vomitings, and a putrid solution of the whole body. See his works, vol. iii., col. 421. It is more likely to have been a serpent of the prester or dipsas kind, as the wilderness through which the Israelites passed did neither afford rivers nor marshes, though Bochart endeavors to prove that there might have been marshes in that part; but his arguments have very little weight. Nor is there need of a water serpent as long as the prester or dipsas, which abound in the deserts of Libya, might have abounded in the deserts of Arabia also. But very probably the serpents themselves were immediately sent by God for the chastisement of this rebellious people. The cure was certainly preternatural; this no person doubts; and why might not the agent be so, that inflicted the disease?

Make thee a fiery serpent - Literally, make thee a seraph.

And put it upon a pole - על נס al nes, upon a standard or ensign.

And Moses made a serpent of brass - נחש נחשת nechash nechosheth. Hence we find that the word for brass or copper comes from the same root with nachash, which here signifies a serpent, probably on account of the color; as most serpents, especially those of the bright spotted kind, have a very glistening appearance, and those who have brown or yellow spots appear something like burnished brass: but the true meaning of the root cannot be easily ascertained. On the subject of the cure of the serpent-bitten Israelites, by looking at the brazen serpent, there is a good comment in the book of The Wisdom of Solomon, (Apoch). Numbers 16:4-12, in which are these remarkable words: "They were admonished, having a sign of salvation, (i. e., the brazen serpent), to put them in remembrance of the commandments of thy law. For he that turned himself towards it was not saved by the Thing that he saw, but by Thee, that art the Savior of all." To the circumstance of looking at the brazen serpent in order to be healed, our Lord refers, John 3:14, John 3:15 : "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The brazen serpent was certainly no type of Jesus Christ; but from our Lord's words we may learn,

1. That as the serpent was lifted up on the pole or ensign, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross.

2. That as the Israelites were to look at the brazen serpent, so sinners must look to Christ for salvation.

3. That as God provided no other remedy than this looking for the wounded Israelites, so he has provided no other way of salvation than faith in the blood of his Son.

4. That as he who looked at the brazen serpent was cured and did live, so he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life.

5. That as neither the serpent, nor looking at it, but the invisible power of God healed the people, so neither the cross of Christ, nor his merely being crucified, but the pardon he has bought by his blood, communicated by the powerful energy of his Spirit, saves the souls of men.

May not all these things be plainly seen in the circumstances of this transaction, without making the serpent a type of Jesus Christ, (the most exceptionable that could possibly be chosen), and running the parallel, as some have done, through ten or a dozen particulars?

They - pitched in the valley of Zared - נחל זרד nachal zared. This should be translated the brook Zared, as it is in Deuteronomy 2:13, Deuteronomy 2:14. This stream has its origin in the mountains eastward of Moab, and runs from east to west, and discharges itself into the Dead Sea.