Numbers 21:6

Wherefore the Lord sent fired serpents/fiery adders into the people; at the wounds of which serpents, and (after) the deaths of full many men, (And so the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people; and they bit many of them, and after many people had died,)

Wycliffe Modern Spelling

In The King James Version

And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

In Context

5And the people spake against the Lord, and Moses, and said, Why leddest thou us out of Egypt, that we should die in wilderness? bread faileth, waters be not; our soul loatheth now on this meat most light. (And the people spoke against the Lord, and Moses, and said, Why leddest thou us out of Egypt, so that we would die here in this wilderness? bread faileth us, waters be not; and our souls now loathe this most light food, yea, this manna!)

7they came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we spake against the Lord, and thee; pray thou (the Lord), that he take away from us the serpents, (or pray thou to the Lord, that he take these snakes away from us). And Moses prayed for the people;

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Cross References

Deuteronomy 8:15and he was thy leader in the great wilderness and fearful, in which wilderness was a serpent burning with blast, and a scorpion, and (a) dipsas, that is, an adder, that maketh them whom he stingeth to die for thirst, and utterly no waters were in the desert, the which Lord brought out streams of the hardest stone, (for he was thy leader in the great and fearful wilderness, in which wilderness there were poisonous serpents, and scorpions, and dipsas, that is, snakes that make those that they sting to die from thirst, and when there was utterly no water in that wilderness, the Lord brought forth streams out of the hardest stone,)

Isaiah 30:6The burden of [the] work beasts of the south. In the land of tribulation and of anguish, a lioness, and a lion, of them a serpent, and a [flying] cockatrice; they were bearing their riches on the shoulders of work beasts, and their treasures on the botch of camels, to a people that might not profit to them. (The burden of the work beasts of the south. Into the land of tribulation and of anguish, of a lioness, and a lion, a serpent, and a flying cockatrice, they went carrying their riches on the shoulders of work beasts, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who could not help them.)

Amos 9:3And if they shall be hid in the top of Carmel, from thence I seeking shall do them away, (or And if they shall be hidden on top of Mount Carmel, I shall seek them out there, and I shall do them away); and if they shall hide themselves from mine eyes in the deepness of the sea, there I shall command a serpent, and it shall bite them, (and devour them).

Matthew Henry on Numbers 21:5-10

The Brazen Serpent. ( b. c. 1452.) 4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. 5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Numbers 21:6