Numbers 21:3-21

English Standard Version

³And the Lord heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called ^(A)Hormah.^[a]

The Bronze Serpent

⁴From Mount Hor ^(B)they set out by the way to the Red Sea, ^(C)to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵And the people ^(D)spoke against God and against Moses, ^(E)“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and ^(F)we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶^(G)Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and ^(H)they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷^(I)And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. ^(J)Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹So ^(K)Moses made a bronze^[b] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The Song of the Well

¹⁰And the people of Israel set out and ^(L)camped in Oboth. ¹¹^(M)And they set out from Oboth and ^(N)camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise. ¹²From there they set out and camped in ^(O)the Valley of Zered. ¹³From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the ^(P)Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon,
¹⁵and the slope of the valleys
that extends to the seat of ^(Q)Ar,
and leans to the border of Moab.”

¹⁶And from there they continued ^(R)to Beer;^[c] that is the well of which the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that ^(S)I may give them water.” ¹⁷Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—
¹⁸the well that the princes made,
that the nobles of the people dug,
with ^(T)the scepter and with their staffs.”

And from the wilderness they went on to Mattanah, ¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, ²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah ^(U)that looks down on the desert.^[d]