Numbers 21:8 (DBY)

Passage

And Jehovah said to Moses, Make thee a fiery [serpent], and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, and looketh upon it, shall live.

Nearby Context

Numbers 21:6 Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Numbers 21:7 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, in that we have spoken against Jehovah, and against thee: pray to Jehovah that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Numbers 21:8 And Jehovah said to Moses, Make thee a fiery [serpent], and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, and looketh upon it, shall live.

Numbers 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole; and it came to pass, if a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Numbers 21:10 And the children of Israel journeyed, and encamped in Oboth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jehovah", "said", "moses", "make", "thee", "fiery", "serpent", and "upon". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jehovah" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "And the people came to Moses and..." into verse 9's "And Moses made a serpent of brass...", so "jehovah" and "said" belong inside that flow. In Numbers context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "jehovah" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.