Era 4 · Covenant and WildernessNumbers
The Bronze Serpent and the Songs of the Way
"Every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live"
The Canaanite king of Arad attacks Israel and takes captives. Israel vows to destroy his cities if God gives victory; God does, and the place is called Hormah, "destruction."
Going around Edom, the people grow impatient: "Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread." "And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died."
The people confess: "We have sinned." Moses prays. "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole… when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Israel camps at Oboth, Iye-abarim, the valley of Zared, and beyond the Arnon, the border of Moab. "Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon."
At Beer ("well"), God gives water: "Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves."
The copper snake of Timna
In the Timna valley, where Egyptian expeditions mined copper, Beno Rothenberg excavated a small shrine to the goddess Hathor. In its final phase (12th century BC), after the Egyptians left, Midianites reused it as a tent shrine with standing stones and curtains of red and yellow wool. Inside lay a copper snake about 12 cm long, its head gilded. Rothenberg connected it with Numbers 21: a copper serpent, in a tent shrine, among Midianites (Moses' in-laws), in the copper district Israel passed through.
Bronze and copper snakes have also been found at Gezer, Hazor, Megiddo and elsewhere, often in cultic contexts. Serpents stood for healing, protection and life in several ancient cultures.
Punon: copper country
Numbers 33:42–43 lists Punon among Israel's stations, the place most connect with the bronze serpent. Punon is Faynan in Jordan, one of the largest copper districts of the ancient world, mined in the Bronze Age and intensively in the 11th–9th centuries BC. A bronze serpent in copper country is fitting.
Nehushtan
The serpent was kept for centuries. By King Hezekiah's time (c. 715 BC), people burned incense to it, calling it Nehushtan. Hezekiah "brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made" (2 Kings 18:4). A sign of God's healing had become an idol.
The problem of Arad
Tel Arad was a large city in the Early Bronze Age and a Judahite fortress in the Iron Age, but was not occupied in the Late Bronze Age, when Israel's battle with "the king of Arad" would have happened. Suggested answers: Arad was the name of a region or of another site, such as Tel Malhata; or the name was applied later. The list of Pharaoh Shoshenq I (c. 925 BC) names two places called Arad, "Great Arad" and another, showing the name was not tied to one mound.
A lost book
"The book of the wars of the LORD" is quoted only here. Like "the book of Jasher" (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18), it was an older collection of poems that the biblical writer used. Its existence tells us Israel's earliest traditions were partly preserved in songs before they were written into the Torah.
The Song of the Well
"Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it" is one of the oldest-sounding songs in the Torah: short lines, repetition, and a work song's rhythm. Leaders dig with their staffs, a picture that fits wells in desert wadis, where water lies just under the gravel. Some scholars compare it with Arabic well-songs of the desert; it may be the kind of song the "book of the wars of the LORD" contained.
Leaving Moab alone
In the Samaritan Pentateuch, 21:12 adds God's words from Deuteronomy 2:9: "Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot." Israel passes Moab and Edom, kin through Lot and Esau, without fighting them.
The Case for the Biblical Account
Scripture's account
Victory at Hormah; serpents strike; Moses' bronze serpent heals those who look; the march past Moab with its songs (Numbers 21:1–20).
What evidence would we expect?
Copper metallurgy along the route; serpent imagery in cult; a Canaanite Arad in the Late Bronze Age.
The discoveries
The Timna copper snake in a Midianite tent shrine; Faynan (Punon) copper mining; serpent objects at Gezer, Hazor, Megiddo; Tel Arad without Late Bronze occupation; two Arads in Shoshenq's list.
Testing the discoveries
The snake and copper industry fit the region and period strikingly. The Arad problem is real and unresolved.
The strongest reconstruction
The bronze serpent story belongs to the copper-producing world of the Arabah and its Midianite cult, and the object itself is said to have survived to Hezekiah's reign.
What remains possible
That "Arad" refers to another site or region; that the Timna snake reflects a shared cultural symbol rather than a direct link.
Then and Later
The bronze serpent, then and later
- WildernessNumbers 21. Look and live.
- 12th c. BCTimna. A gilded copper snake in a Midianite tent shrine.
- c. 715 BCHezekiah. Breaks Nehushtan, which had become an idol.
- 1st c. BCWisdom of Solomon. "He that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all."
- c. AD 30Jesus to Nicodemus. "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
What the evidence shows
- A copper snake with a gilded head was found in the Midianite phase of the Timna shrine.Source: B. Rothenberg, Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines (1972)
- Faynan (Punon) was a major copper district in the Bronze and early Iron Ages.
- Tel Arad was unoccupied in the Late Bronze Age.
- The Timna snake is connected with the biblical bronze serpent.
- The "book of the wars of the LORD" was an older written source.
- The Samaritan Pentateuch adds Deuteronomy 2:9 at 21:12. Read in the site's Samaritan text.
- "Every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."
Continue the journey
Echoes Across CivilizationsSerpents that healDid other ancient peoples use serpent images for healing or protection?More from this lesson
On the map
Location securely identified Probable identification Proposed or debated location Biblical route (roads schematic) Scholarly proposal
- Proposal: from Kadesh to the plains of Moab. An illustrative proposal, not a confirmed route. Kadesh → Mount Hor on Edom's border → around Edom through the Arabah (Punon) → north along Moab → Dibon → the plains of Moab opposite Jericho. Punon, Dibon and the plains of Moab are securely located; Kadesh is probable; Mount Hor is debated. Most of the stations of Numbers 33 cannot be placed on a map (see the itinerary lesson); lines between stops are schematic.
Echoes Across Civilizations
Optional: how other ancient peoples told similar stories. Open one to compare, then come back to the lesson.
Serpents that healMidianite (probably) · Egypt · Greek
Did other ancient peoples use serpent images for healing or protection?
- Midianite (probably): The copper snake of the Timna shrine Possible historical contact
- Egypt: Snake-bite magic and the uraeus Possible historical contact
- Greek: The rod of Asclepius Resemblance only
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- "As Moses lifted up the serpent."
- Hezekiah breaks Nehushtan.
- "Neither let us tempt Christ… and were destroyed of serpents."
- Seraphim: the same word as the "fiery" serpents.
- The serpent and the promise.
- Another lost book: the book of Jasher.
- Moab is not to be attacked.