Numbers 21:7

Num 21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Ver. 7. Pray unto the Lord.] Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift.

Make thee a fiery serpent,] i.e., The similitude of such a one; an unlikely means to effect such a cure. Yea, some write, that it is deadly for those that are stung with a serpent to look upon brass. Certain it is, that this cure was not wrought by anything in the nature of the brazen serpent, but by the institution and ordination of God, to be also a type of Christ; a noble and notable figure of Christ lifted up on the cross, {Joh 3:14} or rather in his ordinances. {Gal 3:1} They that looked upon their sores, and not upon the sign, died for it; as those that looked on the sign, though but with one eye, though with but a squint eye, or but with half an eye, they were healed presently. So they that fix their eyes upon their sins only, and not upon their Saviour, despair and die; but those that look to Christ, being faithful in weakness, though weak in faith, are sure to be saved. It is but look up and live. Only look up, as they did that were wounded, weepingly, wishfully, pitifully, cravingly. See and sigh, look upon him whom you have pierced; let your sins be as so many Hazaels to you, and your hearts as so many Hadadrimmons. {Zec 12:10-11}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21:7-9 Jesus alluded to this incident when discussing his identity and mission (John 3:14-15). • By Hezekiah’s day (around 700 BC), this bronze snake had become an object of worship in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18:4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned--The severity of the scourge and the appalling extent of mortality brought them to a sense of sin, and through the intercessions of Moses, which they implored, they were miraculously healed. He was directed to make the figure of a serpent in brass, to be elevated on a pole or standard, that it might be seen at the extremities of the camp and that every bitten Israelite who looked to it might be healed. This peculiar method of cure was designed, in the first instance, to show that it was the efficacy of God's power and grace, not the effect of nature or art, and also that it might be a type of the power of faith in Christ to heal all who look to Him because of their sins (Joh 3:14-15; see also on Kg2 18:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned,.... Being bitten with serpents, and some having died, the rest were frightened, and came and made an humble acknowledgment of their sins to Moses:

for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; murmuring at their being brought out of Egypt, and because they had no better provision in the wilderness; concluding they should die there for want, and never enter into the land of Canaan, of which evils they were now sensible, and confessed them:

pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us; or "the serpent" (c), in the singular, which is put for the plural, as it often is; or the plague of the serpent, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it might cease, and they be no more distressed by them: they were sensible they came from God, and that none could remove them but him; and knowing that Moses was powerful in prayer, and had interest with God, they entreat him to be their intercessor, though they had spoken against him and used him ill:

and Moses prayed for the people; which proves him to be of a meek and forgiving spirit; who, though he had been so sadly reflected on, yet readily undertakes to pray to God for them.

(c) "serpentem", Montanus; "hunc serpentem", Piscator,

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

7. We have sinned — Man’s moral nature is so constituted that he instinctively ascribes natural evil to a moral cause — suffering to sin. This judgment was designed to arouse the torpid conscience. The awakened moral sense unerringly discovers the sin.

We have spoken against the Lord — The quickened memory brings back every word which has impeached the divine goodness and wisdom. So it may be in the judgment.

Against thee — The thoroughness of the confession is proof of its sincerity. It is easier to confess our sins against God than it is to make acknowledgment of wrong to man.

Pray unto the Lord — The religious nature of man shines out in the darkness of great calamities. He turns to some power above nature and implores its interposition. The pagan rushes to his temple, the Hebrew turns toward the tabernacle or temple, the Christian to the throne of grace.

And Moses prayed — There is scarcely any record of Moses’s prayers for himself; his prayers are generally for others. He was the mediator of the old covenant as Jesus is of the new. Gal_3:19. The burden of Moses’s prayer was, that the fiery serpents might be taken away. Like many of our prayers, it was not answered in form but in fact.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pray unto the Lord. This is the first and only (recorded) occasion on which the people directly asked for the intercession of Moses, (cf., however, Num_11:2) although Pharaoh had done so several times, and never in vain.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ויתפלל משה AND MOSES PRAYED — From this we may learn that he of whom one seeks forgiveness should not be so cruel as not to forgive (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.