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Wisdom 16:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Wisdom 16:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Locusts and the Bronze Serpent
5 Even when the venomous rage of wild animals terrorized your people
and they were perishing from the bites of wriggling serpents,
your anger did not continue to the uttermost.
6 They were afflicted for a short time as a warning,
and they were then given a symbol of salvation to remind them of the precepts of your law.[a]
7 For he who turned toward it was saved,
not by what he beheld,
but by you, the Savior of all.
Footnotes
- Wisdom 16:6 According to the Book of Numbers (Num 21:8-9), it was sufficient to look upon the symbol of the bronze serpent to remain alive. Here the author seems to want to eliminate every purely magical interpretation: God alone saves. The New Testament indicates that it is the Father who gives life to all those who turn toward the sign of the serpent, toward the Son of Man raised up on the cross (Jn 3:14-16).
