Numbers 21:9

9. Serpent of brass The material was not prescribed in the command. Brass was selected, doubtless, because its lustre would enable it to be seen at a great distance. Possibly the fiery serpents may have had a coppery hue, like the copperhead of America. The size of this piece of brass was probably many times that of the fiery serpent, in order to be seen from afar. That the Israelites had abundance of metals is seen from the amount contributed to the tabernacle.

If a serpent had bitten any man This would imply that the antidote was only for those bitten previous to the lifting up of the brazen serpent; but a critical examination shows that the merciful Healer provides also for those who may be bitten subsequently. Nordh. ( Gram., § 1090, 2) translates the passage thus: “And it came to pass when a serpent bit a man, and he looked at the serpent of brass, that he survived.” See Furst’s Lexicon. “It ( אם ) is but seldom a sign of the actual past.” This justifies the conclusion that the fiery serpents were not taken away, but that they continued to annoy the people and to kill such as despised the remedy, while the virus was harmless in the veins of him who immediately looked toward the antidote. How long the brazen serpent continued to be “lifted up” in the camp we know not; but it is probable that it continued during the remainder of the march to Canaan, and that it had a conspicuous position near the tabernacle after it was set up in the Land of Promise. We find it existing eight hundred and twenty-five years afterward (2 Kings 18:4) as an object of idolatrous worship, when the reformer, Hezekiah, because of this, broke it in pieces. He stigmatized it as “Nehushtan,” a mere piece of brass. Rationalistic writers, both Jewish and Christian, have endeavoured to divest the cure by looking at the brazen serpent of its miraculous character by the theory that Moses, by his knowledge of astrology, devised this as a talisman or charm to operate on the imaginations of the people. The more pious Jews regard the cures as the result of a lively faith in Jehovah. See Targum of Onkelos. Evangelical writers ascribe the healing power of this serpent-form to its great Antitype, lifted up in crucifixion for the salvation of all believers.