The Bronze Serpent

6 And Yahweh sent among the people poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many people from Israel died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh and let him remove the snakes[fn] from among us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Make for yourself a snake and place it on a pole. When[fn] anyone is bitten and looks at it, that person will live.” 9 So Moses made a snake of bronze, and he placed it on the pole; whenever[fn] a snake bit someone, and that person looked at the snake of bronze, he lived.

10 The Israelites[fn] set out and encamped at Oboth. 11 They set out from Oboth and encamped at Iye Abarim in the desert, which was in front of Moab toward the sunrise.[fn] 12 From there they set out and encamped at the valley of Zered. 13 From there they set out and encamped beyond Arnon, which is in the desert that goes out from the boundary of the Amorites,[fn] because Arnonis the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.[fn]

• 14 Therefore thus it is said in the scroll of the Wars of Yahweh,“Waheb in Suphah,
  • and the wadis of Arnon,
  • 15  that spreads out to the dwelling of Ar
• and lies at the boundary of Moab.”

16 From there they went to Beer, which is the water well where Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Gather the people, that I may give them water.” 17 Then Israel sang this song, “Arise, well water! Sing to it! 18 Well water that the princes dug, that the leaders of the people dug, with a staff and with their rods.” And from the desert they continued to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the territory of Moab, by the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the surface of the wasteland.