Seventy Elders to Assist Moses

¹⁶ The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me ^(A)seventy men from the elders of Israel, ^(B)whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their stand there with you.

⁴ Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the ^[a]Red Sea, to ^(A)go around the land of Edom; and the ^[b]people became impatient because of the journey. ⁵ So the people spoke against God and Moses: “^(B)Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no ^[c]food and no water, and ^[d](C)we are disgusted with ^[e]this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

^6 (D)Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and ^(E)they bit the people, so that ^(F)many people of Israel died. ^7 (G)So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; ^(H)intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. ⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “^[f]Make a ^(I)fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.” ⁹ So Moses made a ^(J)bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.