The Berean Table

Field	Detail
Pericope	Numbers 21:1–35
Theme	The LORD who judges His grumbling people lifts up a remedy for the dying and then leads the healed toward the land in victory.

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Opening Prayer

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Closing Prayer

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Timeline Context

Where the chapter falls in Numbers. Numbers moves in three stages: the camp ordered at Sinai (1:1–10:10), the journey through the wilderness (10:11 through chapter 21), and the long encampment on the plains of Moab (22:1 to the end). Chapter 21 is the hinge between the second and third stages. It opens with Israel near Mount Hor, where Aaron has just died (20:22–29), and closes with the kingdoms of Sihon and Og in Israel’s hands, one verse before the camp settles “in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho” (22:1). The chapter holds the last of the book’s complaint narratives (21:4–9) and the first sustained victories of the new generation (21:21–35). Death and grumbling lie behind; conquest and inheritance lie ahead.

Date and season. The chapter belongs to the fortieth year after the exodus. Aaron died on Mount Hor on the first day of the fifth month of that year (33:38), and Moses began the addresses of Deuteronomy in the eleventh month (Deuteronomy 1:3), so the march around Edom, the northward journey and the wars with Sihon and Og fall within roughly half a year. On the early exodus date (about 1446 BC, from 1 Kings 6:1) these events belong to about 1406 BC; on the late date, favored by some scholars, they belong to the thirteenth century BC under the Egyptian New Kingdom.

The route. Edom had refused passage along the King’s Highway (20:14–21), so Israel set out “by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom” (21:4), down the Arabah toward the Gulf of Aqaba and then north along the desert side of Edom and Moab (Deuteronomy 2:1–8). The fuller station list in Numbers 33:41–49 names Zalmonah and Punon before Oboth, and Dibon-gad and Almon-diblathaim where chapter 21 names Beer, Mattanah, Nahaliel and Bamoth. Keil, following Kurtz, explains the difference by purpose: chapter 33 lists formal encampments, while chapter 21 names the places that mattered for the story.

The political world. East of the Jordan lay three peoples related to Israel, whom the LORD forbade Israel to attack: Edom (descendants of Esau), and Moab and Ammon (descendants of Lot) (Deuteronomy 2:4–9, 19). North of the Arnon, however, the Amorite king Sihon had recently taken Moabite land and made Heshbon his capital (21:26). Farther north, Og ruled Bashan and northern Gilead; Deuteronomy calls him the last “of the remnant of the Rephaim” (Deuteronomy 3:11). The Amorites belonged to the Canaanite peoples (Genesis 10:16), whose iniquity the LORD had told Abraham was “not yet complete” (Genesis 15:16).

The order of events in verses 1–3. Commentators differ on when the attack of the king of Arad took place:

• In sequence. Keil reads it where it stands, during the stay near Mount Hor, with the full execution of the ban on Arad’s territory coming later (Joshua 12:14; Judges 1:16–17).
• Arranged by topic. Barnes holds that the attack most likely came as the camp left Kadesh, and that Moses placed it here as the first of the victories he now narrates.
• Fought then, completed later. Calvin conjectures an interval between the victory and the destruction of the cities, and Gill holds that the cities were devoted to destruction at this time but actually destroyed in Joshua’s day.

The text does not settle the question, and none of these readings doubts that the event happened as recorded.

Surrounding events and their theological weight. Chapter 20 recorded Miriam’s death, the sin of Moses and Aaron at Meribah, and Aaron’s death, all reminders that even the best of the old generation would not enter the land. Chapters 22–24 show Balak of Moab, alarmed by what Israel did to the Amorites (22:2), hiring Balaam to curse a people the LORD had blessed. Chapter 32 settles Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh in the very lands taken from Sihon and Og.

Redemptive-historical placement. These victories are the first installment of the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 15:13–21). Israel remembered them for centuries: Rahab in Jericho had heard of them (Joshua 2:10), Jephthah argued from them (Judges 11:19–26), the Levites confessed them (Nehemiah 9:22), and the Psalms sang them (Psalm 135:10–12; 136:17–22). The New Testament returns to this chapter twice: Jesus names the bronze serpent as a figure of His own lifting up (John 3:14–15), and Paul names the serpent plague as a warning to the church (1 Corinthians 10:9–11).

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Historical-Grammatical Study

Genre. Numbers 21 is historical narrative built around a travel itinerary (vv. 10–13, 16, 18–20) and carrying three fragments of ancient Hebrew poetry: a citation from the Book of the Wars of the LORD (vv. 14–15), the Song of the Well (vv. 17–18), and a taunt song about Heshbon (vv. 27–30). The narrative portions are terse, and the poetry is compressed and allusive. Barnes remarks that the Arnon fragment is “a reference rather than a quotation” (Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Numbers 21:14); that is, the lines were meant to call to mind a song the first readers already knew.

The Book of the Wars of the LORD. This source is otherwise unknown and should not be the subject of speculation. Keil describes it as “a collection of odes of the time of Moses himself, in celebration of the glorious acts of the Lord to and for the Israelites” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 21:14). Poole adds that Moses could cite it “without any prejudice to the integrity of the Holy Scripture, because this book doth not appear to have been written by a prophet” (Poole, Commentary, on Numbers 21:14). The point is that an inspired author may quote an uninspired source, as Paul quotes Greek poets (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12). The quotation becomes Scripture’s own true statement; the lost book does not become Scripture.

Key Hebrew terms (checked against Strong’s and Brown-Driver-Briggs):

• Vow and ban (vv. 2–3). Hebrew nadar is to vow (in neder, a vow), a promise made to God. Hebrew charam means to devote something to God, especially for destruction, and the noun cherem is the thing so devoted. The place name Hormah (Hebrew Chormah) comes from the same root, so the place carries the memory of the ban.
• Impatience (v. 4). The ESV’s “became impatient” renders an idiom built on the Hebrew qatsar (to be short) with nephesh (soul, life, breath): the people’s soul was short on the way. A related expression, the Hebrew qotser (shortness) with ruach (spirit), stands behind Exodus 6:9. The picture is of breath and patience running out together.
• Worthless food (v. 5). Hebrew qeloqel is found only here; Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses it contemptible, worthless. The people are speaking of the manna.
• Fiery serpents (vv. 6, 8). Hebrew nachash is the ordinary word for serpent, the word of Genesis 3. Hebrew saraph means burning, and the same word names the seraphim of Isaiah 6:2. Commentators divide over whether the serpents were called “fiery” for their inflamed, burning bite (Keil, Poole, Barnes) or for their coppery color (the Pulpit Commentary).
• Bronze (v. 9). Hebrew nechosheth is copper or bronze. Verse 9 plays on sound: nechash nechosheth, a bronze serpent. When Hezekiah later destroyed the object, it was called Nehushtan (Hebrew Nechushtan, the bronze thing) (2 Kings 18:4).
• Pole (vv. 8–9). Hebrew nes is a flag, standard, signal or banner. It stands behind “The LORD Is My Banner” (Exodus 17:15) and the root of Jesse who “shall stand as a signal for the peoples” (Isaiah 11:10).
• Seeing and looking (vv. 8–9). Verse 8 uses the Hebrew ra’ah, the common verb to see (“when he sees it”). Verse 9 uses the Hebrew nabat, to look intently, to regard (“he would look at the bronze serpent”). The result of the look is the Hebrew chayah, to live.
• Well and scepter (vv. 16–18). Hebrew be’er means a well, and gives the place its name, Beer. The ESV’s “scepter” is Hebrew mechoqeq, from chaqaq, to engrave or decree; the same word appears in Genesis 49:10.
• Ballad singers (v. 27). The ESV’s “ballad singers” translates a participle of the Hebrew mashal, to speak in a mashal: a proverb, byword, parable or taunt. The same noun introduces Balaam’s oracles (23:7).
• Chemosh (v. 29). Hebrew Kemosh was the national god of Moab (1 Kings 11:7; Jeremiah 48:7).

Textual notes.

• In verse 1 the ESV reads “by the way of Atharim,” taking the word as a place name with the Septuagint. The KJV’s “by the way of the spies” follows the ancient versions that took atharim as a form of the word for spies. Keil preferred the KJV sense; the Pulpit Commentary calls the translation “very uncertain” (Pulpit Commentary, on Numbers 21:1).
• In verse 14 the ESV reads “Waheb in Suphah” as place names. The KJV rendered the line “What he did in the Red sea,” and Calvin, taking Suphah as the Sea of Reeds, drew a comparison between the Red Sea and the Arnon. The underlying Hebrew is uncertain, and the ESV’s reading is the one followed by most modern translations.
• In verse 30 the Hebrew is difficult. Keil and the Pulpit Commentary both explain the ESV’s “fire spread as far as Medeba” from the Septuagint, which read the Hebrew word meaning fire where the traditional text has a relative particle.

Ancient Near Eastern background.

• Copper country. The Arabah was a copper-producing region, and Punon, an encampment on this march (33:42), was known in antiquity for its copper workings; Keil cites Jerome’s report of copper “dug up by condemned criminals” there (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 21:10). Bronze was a material at hand in that region.
• Serpent symbolism. Serpents appear widely in ancient Near Eastern religious imagery, and some scholars have explained the bronze serpent as borrowed healing magic. Keil rejects this firmly, noting that such a view is “irreconcilably opposed to the biblical view of the serpent, as the representative of evil” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 21:8). The remedy is God’s own command and has no power of its own.
• Chemosh and the ban outside Israel. The Moabite Stone (the Mesha inscription, ninth century BC) names Chemosh as the god of Moab, attributes Moab’s past subjugation to his anger with his land, and uses the same root charam for devoting a captured town to a deity. The taunt of verse 29, “He has made his sons fugitives” (v. 29), therefore reflects how Moab itself explained defeat. The biblical ban was not an Israelite invention; what distinguishes it is the God who pronounced it and the reason He gave (Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 9:5).
• Roads and cities. The King’s Highway (v. 22) was the principal north–south route through the Transjordan highlands. Heshbon stood on the plateau between the Arnon and the Jabbok, and Edrei guarded the approach to Bashan. The identification of Arad with the mound of Tel Arad, favored by Barnes and Keil, has been questioned because excavators there have not found a city of this period; scholars have suggested that the name referred to a district or to a nearby site. The question concerns geography, not the reliability of the narrative.

Covenantal themes and patterns.

• Promise. The LORD had promised Abraham that his descendants would return when “the iniquity of the Amorites” was complete (Genesis 15:16). Sihon and Og are the first Amorite kings to fall.
• Covenant sanction. The serpents fulfill the pattern of discipline for unbelief already seen in chapters 11, 14 and 16 (compare Leviticus 26:14–22). Yet the chapter’s movement is from judgment to mercy, not the reverse.
• Mediation. The people ask Moses to pray, and the LORD answers through His appointed mediator (v. 7), as at Taberah (11:2) and after Korah’s rebellion (16:46–48).
• Holy war. The LORD fights for Israel and tells Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand” (v. 34). His victories are remembered in song, as at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1–21).

The ban (cherem) and the moral question. Verses 2–3 and 35 describe the destruction of whole populations, and a reader should not pass over that quickly. Several things in Scripture frame it:

• It is presented as God’s own judicial sentence, delayed for centuries until the Amorites’ iniquity was full (Genesis 15:16), and executed “because of the wickedness of these nations,” not because of Israel’s righteousness (Deuteronomy 9:5).
• It was not ethnic hatred. Israel was forbidden to touch Edom, Moab and Ammon, and even Sihon received “words of peace” first (Deuteronomy 2:26).
• It belonged to a unique theocratic moment in which the LORD, as King of Israel and Judge of the nations, gave a direct command. It is never offered as a pattern for any later nation, army or church. Christ’s people fight with weapons that “are not of the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Older commentators defend the ban with confidence. The Pulpit Commentary argues that the vow ensured that “the soldier does not slay in order to gratify his own hatred, or in order to satisfy his own cupidity” (Pulpit Commentary, on Numbers 21:2), meaning that the ban removed private greed and revenge from the war; its comparison with the modern patriot soldier will persuade fewer readers today. Calvin suggested that the Transjordan cities were destroyed “lest convenient habitations should tempt the people to torpor” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:34–35), that is, to keep Israel moving toward Canaan; the text itself gives no such reason. Meredith Kline argued that the conquest was an intrusion, into Israel’s history, of the ethics of the final judgment. That reading places these wars alongside the last day rather than alongside ordinary statecraft, and it explains why they cannot be repeated. The difficulty remains real, and the right response to it is reverent: the Judge of all the earth does right (Genesis 18:25), and the same Judge bore the curse Himself at the cross (Galatians 3:13).

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Expanded Outline

Section 1 — The First Victory at Hormah (Numbers 21:1–3)

Key Insight

The new generation’s first battle begins with a loss. The Canaanite king of Arad “fought against Israel, and took some of them captive” (v. 1). The text records no sin that explains the defeat; the loss simply exposes Israel’s weakness. Calvin sees God’s fatherly purpose in the setback: “it behooved them to learn that, unless they were aided from on high, they would be altogether insufficient, when they had to resist many powerful nations, since they had not been able to withstand even a single people” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:1). If they could not hold off one border king, they could not take Canaan by their own strength. The lesson of Psalm 44:3 is taught in the field before it is sung in the sanctuary: “not by their own sword did they win the land” (Psalm 44:3).

Israel’s response is the heart of the passage: “Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, ‘If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction’” (v. 2). The Hebrew nadar (to vow) is paired with the Hebrew charam, to devote something wholly to God, which here means to destroy it and keep none of its spoil. Israel does not offer God a bribe. It renounces any profit from the victory. Matthew Henry puts it plainly: “If God would give them victory, he should have all the praise, and they would not make a gain of it to themselves” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:1–3). The vow is an act of worship that gives the whole outcome to God before the battle is fought. Calvin adds that it was lawful because “the vow did not originate in inconsiderate zeal, but rather in the command of God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:2). Israel was not inventing a cause; it was binding itself to a sentence the LORD had already pronounced on the Canaanite cities (Deuteronomy 7:1–2; 20:16–17).

“And 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 Hormah” (v. 3). The name is a deliberate echo. Thirty-eight years earlier the fathers had gone up against these same southern peoples after the LORD had told them not to, and they were beaten back “even to Hormah” (14:45; compare Deuteronomy 1:41–44). The place of their humiliation now becomes the place of their sons’ victory. What made the difference was not better weapons but a different posture: then Israel presumed without the LORD’s presence (14:42–44); now Israel prayed and depended on Him.

The passage points to Christ in two ways. First, it shows the LORD as the warrior who gives His people victory they cannot win for themselves, the pattern fulfilled when Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). Second, the ban shows sin under God’s total judgment. Christ entered that judgment on our behalf: He “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). The New Testament does not call Hormah a type, so the connection is best held as a theological one rather than a direct correspondence. Hormah is the first fruit of the promise that the Amorites’ iniquity would one day be judged (Genesis 15:16), and it anticipates the day when every enemy of God is put under Christ’s feet (1 Corinthians 15:25).

Application

Setbacks often come at the start of a new work God has given, such as a new marriage, a new church plant, a new ministry or a new resolve to fight sin. The old generation met setbacks with complaint and then with presumption. This generation met a setback with prayer. When the first loss comes, the question is not only “What went wrong?” but “Whom will I trust now?” Bring the loss to the LORD before you plan the next move (Philippians 4:6).

Israel’s vow also teaches us how to ask. It is right to ask God for help, and it is right to settle beforehand that the glory of His answer will be His alone. A Christian businessman praying over a difficult year, a student praying over an exam, and a pastor praying over a divided congregation can each say, “Lord, if You give this, I will not use it to build my own name.” That is not bargaining; it is surrender offered in advance (Psalm 50:14–15; Psalm 115:1).

The contrast between Numbers 14:45 and 21:3 is also an encouragement. The place of your worst failure need not remain a monument to it. God can turn the ground where you fell into the ground where you learned to depend on Him. Peter’s denial was followed by a threefold restoration (John 21:15–17), and the church that failed can be a church that prays.

Finally, remember that victories are received, not seized. Israel “vowed a vow to the LORD” before it drew a sword (v. 2). Prayer came first, and it was not a mere preface to planning.

A warning against misapplication: This passage gives no warrant for religious violence, for treating opponents as Canaanites, or for vowing harm against anyone. The ban was God’s own sentence for a unique moment in Israel’s history, and Christ’s people are commanded, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves” (Romans 12:19). Nor is a vow a lever to move God; Jephthah’s rash vow (Judges 11:30–31) shows how a vow made in the wrong spirit can bring ruin.

Section 2 — Impatience on the Way and the Fiery Serpents (Numbers 21:4–7)

Key Insight

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way” (v. 4). Because Edom had refused passage (20:14–21), Israel had to turn south, away from Canaan, and in the text’s order this comes just after a victory on its border. The Hebrew idiom behind “became impatient” speaks of a soul (Hebrew nephesh) grown short (Hebrew qatsar). The road was hot and long and seemed to lead backward. Calvin notes how little cause they had: “they basely rebelled, without being provoked to do so by any new cause” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:4). He means that the grumbling came from within the heart, not from any new hardship. Impatience with God’s route became contempt for God Himself.

“And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food’” (v. 5). The complaint contradicts itself: there is “no food,” and yet they are sick of the food they have. The Hebrew qeloqel means contemptible or worthless, and it is aimed at the manna, bread from heaven that had sustained them for forty years (Exodus 16:35). Matthew Henry asks the question the text raises: “What will those be pleased with whom manna will not please?” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:4–9). A heart that despises daily grace can be satisfied by nothing. The psalmist records the same unbelief: “They spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the wilderness?’” (Psalm 78:19). Paul identifies the One they provoked: “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9). The Greek verb ekpeirazo means to test thoroughly, to try someone’s patience to the limit. The Lord who led Israel through the wilderness is the Christ whom the church now follows.

“Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (v. 6). The Hebrew nachash recalls the serpent of Eden, and saraph (“fiery”) describes their burning bite. Deuteronomy says the wilderness always held “fiery serpents and scorpions” (Deuteronomy 8:15). Henry and Poole infer that until now God had kept them away from the camp. The judgment fits the sin: those who called life-giving bread worthless now meet death in the dust.

The judgment brings the people to confession: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us” (v. 7). Calvin names the two marks of true return to God: “first, that the sinner should be dissatisfied with himself and self-condemned; and, secondly, that he should seek to be reconciled to God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:6–7). Israel names its sin specifically and seeks God’s mercy through His appointed mediator. “So Moses prayed for the people” (v. 7). The man they had slandered becomes their intercessor. Henry draws the line to the gospel: “Herein he was a type of Christ, who interceded for his persecutors” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:4–9). On the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and He still “always lives to make intercession” for those who draw near to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).

Application

Grumbling usually starts with the road before it reaches the bread. A long illness, a job that did not come, a ministry that seems to go in circles, or a season of waiting can make the soul short. Impatience with God’s way then spills into contempt for God’s gifts. Things that once delighted us, such as the preaching of the Word, the Lord’s Supper, the fellowship of a faithful church, or a spouse’s steady love, begin to seem ordinary and even worthless. The first step is to recognize the pattern in ourselves and name it for what it is: speaking against God (v. 5).

Paul applies this chapter directly to the church: “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The remedy for grumbling is not merely silence but thanksgiving. We are to “do all things without grumbling or disputing” (Philippians 2:14) and to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Israel’s confession also shows what real repentance sounds like. It is specific: “we have spoken against the LORD and against you” (v. 7). It acknowledges the people who were wronged, and it seeks mercy. When we have spoken bitterly against a pastor, an elder or a family member, confession should be made to God and to them.

Finally, imitate Moses. He prayed for people who had just blamed him for their misery. Praying for those who have wronged us is one of the clearest ways we reflect Christ, who interceded for His enemies.

A warning against misapplication: This passage does not forbid lament. The Psalms teach God’s people to cry to Him honestly: “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:2). The sin in Numbers 21 is complaint against God in unbelief, not complaint to God in faith. Nor should anyone conclude that every illness or disaster is a direct punishment for a particular sin (John 9:1–3; Luke 13:1–5).

Section 3 — The Bronze Serpent Lifted Up (Numbers 21:8–9)

Key Insight

The people asked Moses to pray “that he take away the serpents” (v. 7). God answered in a different way: “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live” (v. 8). The serpents stay, but a remedy is provided for everyone who is bitten. The remedy seems absurd: the bitten are to look at an image of the very thing that is killing them. Calvin sees the wisdom in that: “this apparent absurdity was far better suited to render the grace of God conspicuous than as if there had been anything natural in the remedy” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:8). A look at bronze could heal no one, so the healing was plainly God’s work.

“So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole” (v. 9). The Hebrew is a play on sound, nechash nechosheth, and the “pole” is the Hebrew nes, a standard or banner raised where all can see it. The shape of the remedy matters. Barnes writes: “In the serpent of brass, harmless itself, but made in the image of the creature that is accursed above others, the Christian fathers rightly see a figure of Him” (Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Numbers 21:8). The bronze serpent had the form of the deadly thing without its poison. So God sent “his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Romans 8:3), and “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ bore the form of the curse without its guilt, “becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

The promise is universal, “everyone who is bitten” (v. 8), and the outcome certain: “if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (v. 9). Verse 8 uses the ordinary Hebrew verb ra’ah (to see); verse 9 uses the Hebrew nabat, which means to look intently, to fix one’s gaze. No offering or ritual was required. Spurgeon draws out what that excludes: “when a man was healed by looking at the serpent, he could not say that he healed himself, for he only looked and there is no virtue in a look” (Spurgeon, Number 1500, or Lifting Up the Bronze Serpent, No. 1500). A look receives healing but does not earn it. So faith receives Christ and contributes nothing to its own saving.

Jesus Himself interprets the sign: “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). The Greek hypsoo means to lift up or exalt, and John uses it for the cross. Jesus later said, “when I am lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32), and John explained, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die” (John 12:33). The cross is where the Son is lifted up, and through it He is exalted. Calvin, on John, took the lifting up to mean Christ’s display in the preaching of the gospel, adding that “faith has its own look, by which it perceives him as present” (Calvin, Commentary on John, on John 3:14). John 12:33 points to the cross itself, but the readings belong together: the crucified Christ is “publicly portrayed” whenever He is preached (Galatians 3:1).

The sign pointed away from itself. When Israel later “made offerings to it,” Hezekiah broke it in pieces (2 Kings 18:4). The LORD, not the bronze, was the Healer.

Application

The first application is to look away from yourself. A bitten Israelite could study the wound, apply remedies of his own, or wait to feel better, and he would die. The conscience stung by sin is tempted to do the same: to dwell on guilt, to try to make amends by effort, or to wait for a feeling of worthiness before coming to Christ. The gospel says to look to Him now. God’s call through Isaiah is universal: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!” (Isaiah 45:22). The Christian life keeps the same posture, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Second, no one is too far gone. The promise named “everyone who is bitten” (v. 8), whether the bite was fresh or the fever far advanced. When you speak with someone who thinks they have sinned beyond hope, point them to the lifted-up Son of Man and to His word “whoever believes in him” (John 3:15).

Third, lift Him up. The serpent healed only those who saw it, so Moses set it high. Christians lift up Christ when they explain the gospel plainly to a neighbor, when parents speak of the cross at the family table, and when preachers make Christ crucified the center of their sermons (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Fourth, guard against Nehushtan. Good gifts of God, including church buildings, liturgies, favorite translations, spiritual experiences, and even the sacraments, can become objects of trust in place of the Lord who gave them.

A warning against misapplication: The bronze serpent was not a charm, and faith is not a work that earns healing. The passage gives no support to treating religious objects as sources of power, nor does it promise physical healing to everyone who believes. Its healing was a sign; the eternal life it pictures is found in Christ alone (Acts 4:12).

Section 4 — The March to Pisgah and the Song of the Well (Numbers 21:10–20)

Key Insight

Verses 10–13 read like a travel log: Oboth, Iye-abarim “in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise” (v. 11), the Zered valley, and then the Arnon, “the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites” (v. 13). Behind the list lies obedience. Israel was forbidden to attack Edom or Moab (Deuteronomy 2:4–9), so it went the long way around their borders. The healed people now walked the road that had provoked the grumbling, and this time no complaint is recorded.

At the Arnon the narrator cites an old war song: “Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, ‘Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon, and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of Ar, and leans to the border of Moab’” (vv. 14–15). Keil describes the book as “a collection of odes of the time of Moses himself, in celebration of the glorious acts of the Lord to and for the Israelites” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 21:14). The title matters more than the fragment: these are the LORD’s wars. Calvin, who read the line as a reference to the Red Sea, drew a lesson that stands whatever the translation: “Appropriately, indeed, does Moses compare Arnon with the Red Sea, in order to shew that God’s grace, at its end, is thoroughly in accordance with its commencement” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:14). The God who fought at the start of the journey is fighting at its end.

The next stop is Beer, “the well of which the LORD said to Moses, ‘Gather the people together, so that I may give them water’” (v. 16). The Hebrew be’er means well. The contrast with chapter 20 is striking: at Meribah the people quarreled and demanded water (20:2–5); here no demand is recorded, and the LORD offers the gift. Matthew Henry notes, “Before they prayed, God granted, and anticipated them with the blessings of his goodness” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:10–20). Israel answers with song: “Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—the well that the princes made, that the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter and with their staffs” (vv. 17–18). The leaders did the digging with the symbols of their authority (the Hebrew mechoqeq, “scepter”). Spurgeon notices when the singing started: “Before the water gushed forth, cheerful faith prompted the people to sing” (Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, June 17 evening). They sang on the strength of the promise before they saw the water.

The march then climbs through Mattanah, Nahaliel and Bamoth “to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert” (v. 20). Pisgah is the ridge from which Moses would later see the whole land before he died (Deuteronomy 34:1–4).

This section points to Christ. The water given at Beer anticipates the Lord who cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37), promising that “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38), which John explains as the Spirit (John 7:39). And the LORD’s wars, from the Red Sea to the Arnon, find their decisive battle at the cross and their final one at Christ’s return (Revelation 19:11).

Application

God’s grace at the end of the journey matches His grace at its beginning (Philippians 1:6). Believers in their last years, or churches in a long decline, can take heart: the God of the Red Sea is the God of the Arnon.

Keep your own “book of the wars of the LORD.” Israel remembered God’s victories by writing and singing them. A journal of answered prayers, a family habit of recounting God’s mercies, or testimonies shared in a small group can serve the same purpose (Psalm 77:11–12). Memory fuels faith in new trials.

Sing before the water comes. Spurgeon’s point is practical. A family facing a job loss can praise God for His promise to provide before the next paycheck arrives. A believer waiting for a prodigal to return can sing of God’s faithfulness now (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

Use the means God gives. The LORD promised water, and the princes still dug. Prayer does not replace the ordinary means of grace, work, and responsibility; it takes them up in faith. Leaders especially should be the first to pick up their staffs.

Welcome the change from extraordinary to ordinary provision. Water from a well is no less God’s gift than water from a rock. “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

A warning against misapplication: Singing is not a technique for making blessings appear, and this passage does not promise that faith will produce whatever we desire. Israel sang because God had already promised the water. Nor does the citation of a lost book weaken Scripture; an inspired writer may quote an uninspired source, and the quotation is true because Scripture affirms it.

Section 5 — The Defeat of Sihon King of the Amorites (Numbers 21:21–32)

Key Insight

“Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites” (v. 21) with the same peaceful request it had made to Edom: “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory” (v. 22; compare 20:17). Moses later calls these “words of peace” (Deuteronomy 2:26). Yet the LORD had already said, “Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land” (Deuteronomy 2:24). Calvin concludes that the embassy was sincere and served God’s purpose: “for thus was all excuse taken away when he had voluntarily provoked to war a people who were ready and willing to maintain peace and equity” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:21). Israel made war only after its offer of peace was refused.

“But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel” (v. 23). Unlike Edom, Sihon marched out to attack. Moses supplies the deeper cause: “the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand” (Deuteronomy 2:30). Calvin insists that this does not excuse Sihon: “the wicked are not impelled to hardness of heart by extrinsic force, but that they voluntarily harden themselves” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:21). God governs His enemies’ choices, yet they choose freely and are justly judged. Matthew Henry notes the irony: “The enemies of God’s church are often infatuated in those very counsels which they think most wisely taken” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:21–35).

“And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong” (v. 24). Israel took Heshbon and its villages (v. 25). Verse 26 explains why this was not Moabite land: Sihon “had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon” (v. 26). Israel had kept the command not to take Moab’s inheritance (Deuteronomy 2:9; compare Judges 11:15–26). The “iniquity of the Amorites” that was “not yet complete” in Abraham’s day (Genesis 15:16) had now reached its measure.

The ballad singers’ song (vv. 27–30) first recalls Sihon’s own victory, “For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab” (v. 28), and then mocks Moab’s god: “Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh!” (v. 29). Keil explains the point: “as Chemosh, the god of Moab, could not deliver his people from the Amorite king; so now that Israel has conquered the latter, Moab is utterly lost” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 21:29). The last line turns the song: “So we overthrew them” (v. 30). Moab’s conqueror is conquered, and Israel takes Jazer (vv. 31–32).

The pattern points to Christ, who described His work as the defeat of a strong enemy: “when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil” (Luke 11:22). At the cross “the ruler of this world” was cast out (John 12:31), and the gospel still goes out as words of peace before the judgment.

Application

Offer peace first. Israel’s message to Sihon was courteous and specific, and it cost Israel nothing it needed. Christians are called, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). In a dispute with a neighbor, a coworker, or a fellow church member, the first move should be a sincere offer of peace, even when we expect it to be refused.

Take the gospel’s offer seriously, in both directions. God’s invitation to sinners is sincere, and those who refuse it are without excuse. If you have heard the gospel many times and still resist, Sihon’s story is a warning: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).

Do not fear the powers that seem to hold the ground. Sihon had beaten Moab and made Heshbon his capital, and the song celebrated his fire. A few months later the song belonged to Israel. The prosperity of the wicked is brief (Psalm 37:1–2, 35–36).

Recognize the emptiness of idols. Chemosh could not save Moab. Modern idols, such as money, political power, reputation, and pleasure, cannot save their worshipers either (Psalm 115:4–8).

Keep faith with God’s boundaries. Israel did not seize Moabite or Ammonite land even when it could. Obedience in the middle of success is a mark of genuine faith.

A warning against misapplication: This passage does not authorize any nation, party or church to treat its opponents as Amorites or to seize land in God’s name. Israel’s war was commanded by God for a unique moment in redemptive history. Christians “do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12), and the hardening of Sihon should never be used to write off anyone we find difficult; we do not know God’s secret purposes, and we are commanded to pray for all people (1 Timothy 2:1–4).

Section 6 — The Defeat of Og King of Bashan (Numbers 21:33–35)

Key Insight

“Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei” (v. 33). Bashan was rich, well-watered country, and Og was a formidable king. Deuteronomy remembers him as the last “of the remnant of the Rephaim,” with an iron bed “Nine cubits” long (Deuteronomy 3:11), and his kingdom had sixty fortified cities (Deuteronomy 3:4–5). Forty years earlier the report of giants had sent Israel into despair (13:32–33; 14:1–4). Now another giant marched out to fight.

The LORD spoke first: “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land” (v. 34). The Hebrew natan (to give) stands in the perfect tense, “I have given,” announcing a future victory as already done. Matthew Henry puts it memorably: “Giants are but worms before God’s power” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:21–35). The command not to fear rests entirely on God’s word. Calvin observes the purpose of this second victory: after Sihon, Israel “might confidently expect that, with God for their leader, all things would succeed prosperously with them” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:33). Each victory was meant to build confidence for the next, and ultimately for the Jordan crossing.

“So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land” (v. 35). This is the ban again, as Rahab later confirms: the two Amorite kings “whom you devoted to destruction” (Joshua 2:10). The sentence is sobering and should be read with the same care as at Hormah. It was God’s judgment on a people whose iniquity was full (Genesis 15:16; Amos 2:9), not a model for any later war.

Israel never forgot these two kings. The Psalms name them one by one, each with the refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:19). Spurgeon, preaching on that psalm, noticed where these mercies stand in Numbers 21, right after the serpents: “Oh, it brings tears into our eyes and fills us with humiliation when we remember that many of our choicest mercies have come to us just after our very blackest sins!” (Spurgeon, Sihon and Og, or Mercies in Detail, No. 1285). The chapter moves from rebellion to victory by grace alone. Henry adds that these conquests, small beside the conquest of Canaan, were “an earnest of great things” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:21–35), a down payment guaranteeing the rest of the promise. They also proved to be a witness: news of Sihon and Og reached Jericho and helped bring Rahab to faith (Joshua 2:9–11), and she is named in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Christ is the greater Joshua who faces the enemies too strong for His people: sin, death and the devil. Through death He destroyed “the one who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14), and “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). The victories east of the Jordan were a foretaste; the victory of Christ is the substance.

Application

Name your giants and set God’s word against them. Og was real, and so are the fears that stand in a believer’s way: a diagnosis, a broken relationship, an addiction, a hostile workplace, the approach of death. God’s answer to Moses was not “Og is small” but “I have given him into your hand” (v. 34). Find the promise that meets your fear and rest on it (Isaiah 41:10; Romans 8:31–39).

Let past mercies strengthen present faith. Sihon’s defeat prepared Israel to face Og. When a new trial comes, recall specific deliverances you have already received, as David recalled the lion and the bear before Goliath (1 Samuel 17:34–37).

Give thanks in detail. Psalm 136 does not say only “God defeated kings”; it names Sihon and names Og. Thanksgiving that names particular mercies is warmer and more honest than general gratitude. Try listing, by name, the mercies of the past year and giving thanks for each.

Remember that God’s works bear witness. The victories over Sihon and Og were told as far away as Jericho and brought a Canaanite woman to faith. God’s faithfulness in your life, told humbly, may reach people you will never meet.

Take courage for the whole journey. These conquests were an earnest of the inheritance. In Christ the Spirit is “the guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:14).

A warning against misapplication: God’s command “Do not fear” does not promise that believers will win every earthly contest or avoid suffering. The New Testament says that in tribulation, distress and even death “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37), which is a victory that can include loss. Nor does the destruction of Og’s people offer any pattern for how Christians should treat enemies today; Christ commands us to love them (Luke 6:27).

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Cross References

Comparative Gospel Study

Not Applicable as Direct Comparison — Numbers is Old Testament historical narrative (a wilderness itinerary with embedded poetry), not Gospel narrative. However, Numbers 21 anticipates key Gospel themes, and in one place Jesus Himself draws the line:

• The Son of Man lifted up. Jesus told Nicodemus, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Here Jesus Himself applies an object from Numbers to His own lifting up. John later explains that “lifted up” signified the manner of His death (John 12:32–33), so the pole in the camp anticipates the cross outside Jerusalem.
• Life for whoever looks. The promise to “everyone who is bitten” (Numbers 21:8) becomes the gospel’s universal offer: “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus uses the language of sight: “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life” (John 6:40). The Gospels record many who were healed simply by coming to Jesus in faith.
• Grumbling against bread from heaven. Israel called the manna “worthless food” (Numbers 21:5). In John 6 some of Jesus’ hearers “grumbled about him, because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’” (John 6:41). The same unbelief that despised the manna despised the true Bread it foreshadowed.
• Living water given freely. At Beer the LORD gave water without being asked (Numbers 21:16). Jesus offers water that becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14), and He cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). The well in the desert anticipates the Spirit poured out through the glorified Christ.
• The mediator who prays for his accusers. Moses prayed for the very people who had just spoken against him (Numbers 21:7). Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and as the risen Lord He continues to intercede for His people before the Father.
• The stronger one who overcomes. The LORD delivered Sihon and Og, kings stronger than Israel, into Israel’s hand. Jesus describes His ministry as the binding of a strong man by “one stronger than he” who “takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil” (Luke 11:22), and He announced that “the ruler of this world” would be cast out (John 12:31).

Old Testament Connections

Pentateuch

• Genesis 3:14–15. The serpent of Eden is cursed, and the woman’s offspring will bruise its head. Numbers 21 uses the same Hebrew nachash, and the cure takes the form of the curse overcome.
• Genesis 15:13–21. The promise of the land and the delay “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:16) stand behind the defeat of Sihon and Og.
• Exodus 15:1–21; 17:8–16. The Song of the Sea and the altar “The LORD Is My Banner” (Exodus 17:15) anticipate the songs of Numbers 21 and the nes on which the serpent was raised.
• Exodus 16–17; Numbers 11; 20:2–13. Earlier complaints about food and water, and earlier gifts of manna and water from the rock, form the background of verses 5 and 16–18.
• Leviticus 27:28–29. The law of devoted things (cherem) governs the vow at Hormah.
• Numbers 14:39–45. The failed attack that ended “even to Hormah” (Numbers 14:45) is reversed in 21:1–3.
• Numbers 33:40–49. The parallel itinerary lists additional stations, including Punon.
• Deuteronomy 1:41–46; 2:1–3:11. Moses’ retelling of Hormah, the journey around Edom and Moab, the words of peace to Sihon, the hardening of Sihon’s spirit (Deuteronomy 2:30), and the fall of Og and his sixty cities.
• Deuteronomy 8:15. God led Israel “through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions” (Deuteronomy 8:15).
• Deuteronomy 34:1–4. From the top of Pisgah (Numbers 21:20) Moses would see the land before his death.

Historical Books

• Joshua 2:9–11. Rahab testifies that Jericho heard what Israel did “to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction” (Joshua 2:10).
• Joshua 9:10; 12:1–6; 13:8–33. The Gibeonites cite the same victories, and the conquered lands are allotted to Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh.
• Joshua 12:14; Judges 1:16–17. The kings of Arad and Hormah, and the final destruction of Zephath, whose name “was called Hormah” (Judges 1:17).
• Judges 11:12–28. Jephthah answers the Ammonite claim by retelling Numbers 21:21–26.
• 2 Kings 18:4. Hezekiah “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan)” (2 Kings 18:4).
• Nehemiah 9:22. The Levites’ confession recalls that Israel “took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan” (Nehemiah 9:22).

Wisdom Literature

• Psalm 78:17–31. Israel’s testing of God in the wilderness: “They spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the wilderness?’” (Psalm 78:19).
• Psalm 106:13–15, 24–25. Israel’s forgetfulness and murmuring in their tents.
• Psalm 135:10–12; 136:17–22. Sihon and Og are named in Israel’s worship, each with the refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:19).
• Psalm 44:1–3. Victory in the land came “not by their own sword” (Psalm 44:3).
• Psalm 142:2. Faithful lament, “I pour out my complaint before him” (Psalm 142:2), is the right counterpart to the grumbling of verse 5.

Major Prophets

• Isaiah 6:2; 14:29; 30:6. The Hebrew saraph names the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision and also the “flying fiery serpent” (Isaiah 14:29) of the prophetic oracles.
• Isaiah 11:10, 12. The root of Jesse will “stand as a signal for the peoples” (Isaiah 11:10), using the same word (nes) as the pole in Numbers 21.
• Isaiah 12:3; 41:17–18; 44:3. God promises water in the wilderness, and His people will draw water “from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).
• Isaiah 15–16; Jeremiah 48. Oracles against Moab reuse names and phrases from Numbers 21:28–30, including Heshbon, Dibon, Medeba and the people of Chemosh (compare Jeremiah 48:45–46).
• Jeremiah 48:7. “Chemosh shall go into exile” (Jeremiah 48:7), the prophetic sequel to the taunt of verse 29.
• Isaiah 45:22. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!” (Isaiah 45:22), the universal call that the look of verse 9 pictures.

Minor Prophets

• Amos 2:9–10. The LORD recalls that He “destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars” (Amos 2:9).
• Micah 6:5. The events from Shittim to Gilgal, including Balak’s response to these victories, belong to “the righteous acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:5).
• Hosea 13:4–6. God knew Israel in the wilderness, and when they were satisfied, their heart was lifted up and they forgot Him.

New Testament Fulfillment

Gospels and Acts

• John 3:14–16. Jesus identifies Himself as the reality of the bronze serpent: “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15).
• John 12:31–33. The lifting up is Christ’s death, through which the ruler of this world is cast out and all kinds of people are drawn to Him.
• John 6:30–51. The grumbling over bread from heaven is repeated, and Christ is revealed as the true bread.
• John 4:10–14; 7:37–39. Living water, fulfilled in the gift of the Spirit.
• Luke 11:20–22; 23:34. The stronger one who overcomes the strong man, and the intercession of the crucified Lord.
• Acts 4:12; 13:19. There is salvation in no other name; God destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave Israel its land as an inheritance.

Paul’s Epistles

• 1 Corinthians 10:1–13. “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9); these things “were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
• Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13. Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, was made sin, and became a curse for us, which is the substance behind the harmless image of the deadly serpent.
• Galatians 3:1. Christ is “publicly portrayed as crucified” in preaching, the setting-up of the sign before all eyes.
• Colossians 2:15; Romans 16:20. Christ triumphs over the rulers and authorities, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan.
• Ephesians 1:13–14; Philippians 2:14. The Spirit as the guarantee of the inheritance, and the call to do all things without grumbling.
• 2 Corinthians 10:3–5; Ephesians 6:10–18. The church’s warfare is spiritual, not fleshly.

General Epistles and Revelation

• Hebrews 3:7–4:11. The wilderness generation’s unbelief as a warning, and the Sabbath rest that remains.
• Hebrews 2:14–15; 7:25; 12:2. Christ destroys the devil through death, intercedes forever, and is the One to whom believers look.
• James 5:16. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power” (James 5:16), as Moses’ prayer did.
• 1 Peter 2:24. “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
• 1 John 2:1–2; 5:21. Christ the advocate, and the charge to keep from idols.
• Jude 5. The Lord who saved a people out of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
• Revelation 12:9; 19:11–16; 20:2, 10. The ancient serpent is thrown down and finally judged, and the Faithful and True King “judges and makes war” in righteousness (Revelation 19:11).

Redemptive-Historical Context

Creation and fall. Numbers 21 carries the reader back to Eden. The Hebrew nachash of verse 6 is the serpent of Genesis 3, through whose lie death entered the world. When Israel despised the bread God gave and accused Him of bringing them out to die, it repeated Adam’s distrust of God’s goodness, and the serpent’s bite followed. The wilderness, with its “fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground” (Deuteronomy 8:15), is a picture of the world under the curse.

Redemption promised and pictured. God had promised that the woman’s offspring would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The bronze serpent is a vivid sign within that promise: the likeness of the killer, rendered harmless and lifted up, gives life. Jesus claims the sign for Himself (John 3:14–15). At the cross the Son took “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), bore the curse (Galatians 3:13), and through death destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Numbers 21 thus sits on the line that runs from Eden to Calvary.

Redemption advancing in history. The chapter also moves the Abrahamic promise forward. Four centuries earlier God told Abraham that his descendants would return when the Amorites’ iniquity was complete (Genesis 15:16). In Numbers 21 the first Amorite kings fall, and Israel takes its first permanent territory. God’s patience with the nations and His faithfulness to His people meet in the same events. The pattern established here, in which the LORD fights, His people trust and obey, and the victory is sung and remembered, shapes the conquest under Joshua and Israel’s worship for generations (Psalm 136:17–22).

Patterns for God’s dealings with His people. The chapter presents a recurring pattern in miniature: grace given, grace despised, judgment sent, sin confessed, mediation offered, and a remedy provided that humbles all human effort. Then grace overflows in new gifts (the well) and new victories (Sihon and Og). The same people who grumbled are the people God leads to the edge of the land. Grace does not wait for Israel to become worthy; it meets them in their failure and carries them forward.

The New Covenant and the already and not yet. Paul writes that these events “were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The church lives in the fulfillment. Christ has already been lifted up, the serpent’s head has been crushed in principle, and whoever looks to Christ already has eternal life (John 3:15). Yet the church still walks through the wilderness. Believers still feel sin’s bite, still face enemies, and still need the warning against grumbling (Hebrews 3:12–13). The victories east of the Jordan were a pledge of Canaan, and the Spirit is likewise “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Ephesians 1:14). The ancient serpent will finally be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:2, 10), and the Lord who fought Israel’s wars “judges and makes war” in righteousness (Revelation 19:11). Then the long march will end in the rest that “remains” for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9), and the song of the redeemed will name every mercy.

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Systematic Theology Connection

Christ the Mediator and His Substitutionary Work

How the passage teaches it. The bronze serpent is one of the clearest Old Testament pictures of Christ’s saving work, and its meaning is fixed by Jesus Himself (John 3:14–15). Three features stand out:

• Likeness without guilt. The serpent bore the form of the deadly creature without its venom. The Son took “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3) and was made “to be sin” though He “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Lifted up. The sign was raised on a pole; Christ was lifted up on the cross (John 12:32–33), bearing the curse (Galatians 3:13).
• Intercession. Moses prayed for those who had sinned against him (v. 7), foreshadowing the Mediator who “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25).

Confessional witness. The Westminster Confession teaches that the Son took “man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin” (WCF 8.2), and that He “endured most grievous torments immediately in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified, and died” (WCF 8.4). By this sacrifice He “hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father” (WCF 8.5). The Confession also explains how an Old Testament sign could benefit believers before the incarnation: the benefits of Christ’s work “were communicated unto the elect, in all ages successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices, wherein he was revealed” (WCF 8.6). The Shorter Catechism describes Christ’s priestly office as “offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us” (WSC 25).

Practical implications. Believers find the whole ground of their acceptance outside themselves in a crucified and interceding Savior. When conscience accuses, the answer is not a renewed effort to heal ourselves but a renewed look to Christ, who bore the curse and still prays for His people (1 John 2:1–2). The sign also reminds us that God’s remedy was God’s idea from first to last; salvation is His provision, not our achievement.

Justification by Faith Alone

How the passage teaches it. The bitten Israelite contributed nothing to his cure. He did not pay, perform a ritual, or improve his condition; “he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (v. 9). Jesus applies this directly to believing (John 3:14–15). The look is the channel of healing, not its cause.

Confessional witness. The Westminster Confession teaches that God justifies sinners “not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone” (WCF 11.1). It adds, “Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification” (WCF 11.2). The Larger Catechism guards the same point: faith justifies “not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it” (WLC 73), but “only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness” (WLC 73). The Confession also affirms that the justification of Old Testament believers “was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament” (WCF 11.6).

Witness of the Puritans. John Owen, writing on justification, used this very scene: “Guilty, convinced sinners look unto him by faith” (Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith), as the bitten Israelites looked to the serpent. Thomas Watson made the same comparison and concluded that nothing else could justify, “only faith, whereby we look on Christ” (Watson, A Body of Divinity).

Practical implications. Weak faith that truly looks to Christ saves, because the power is in Christ. Believers should not measure their standing by the strength of their feelings but by the object of their faith (Romans 4:5; Galatians 2:16). Justification also produces humility: the healed man could only say that God had healed him (Ephesians 2:8–9).

The Free Offer of the Gospel and Effectual Calling

How the passage teaches it. The remedy was offered to “everyone who is bitten” (v. 8), without qualification. Israel also sent Sihon “words of peace” (Deuteronomy 2:26), a sincere offer that he refused. The chapter holds together a universal offer and God’s sovereign purpose, since Sihon’s spirit was hardened (Deuteronomy 2:30).

Confessional witness. In the covenant of grace God “freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved” (WCF 7.3). The Canons of Dort use John 3’s own language: “the promise of the gospel is that whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Canons of Dort, II.5), and this promise “ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction” (Canons of Dort, II.5). When sinners refuse, “this is not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the cross, but is wholly to be imputed to themselves” (Canons of Dort, II.6). Those who do come are drawn by God: effectual calling is the Spirit’s work by which “he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel” (WSC 31). The Confession adds that the elect are drawn so that “they come most freely, being made willing by his grace” (WCF 10.1).

Practical implications. Preachers and ordinary Christians should hold up Christ to everyone without hesitation, as the serpent was raised where the whole camp could see it (John 12:32). Those who look should thank God for opening their eyes, and those who refuse have no one to blame but themselves. The doctrine of election never makes the offer less sincere, and the sincerity of the offer never makes grace less sovereign.

Repentance unto Life

How the passage teaches it. Under judgment the people “came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you’” (v. 7). Their confession names the sin, acknowledges both God and the leader they had wronged, and seeks God’s mercy.

Confessional witness. The Shorter Catechism defines repentance as a grace “whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God” (WSC 87). The Confession insists that repentance must be specific: “it is every man’s duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly” (WCF 15.5). It also keeps repentance in its place. Repentance is “not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof” (WCF 15.3); pardon is “the act of God’s free grace in Christ” (WCF 15.3). Yet “it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it” (WCF 15.3). Where others have been wronged, the Confession calls for willingness “by a private or public confession, and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended” (WCF 15.6).

The shape of true repentance. Calvin’s comment on verse 7 fits the Confession closely: the sinner must be “dissatisfied with himself and self-condemned” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:6–7) and must seek reconciliation with God. Israel’s confession did not heal them; the healing came through the remedy God provided. Repentance and faith belong together, but only Christ saves.

Practical implications. Believers should confess sins by name, including sins of the tongue against God and against His servants. Confession should be made to God and, where appropriate, to those we have wronged (Matthew 5:23–24; James 5:16). Repentance is not a single event at conversion but a lifelong turning (1 John 1:8–9).

The Providence of God

How the passage teaches it. The chapter shows God governing every level of creation and history:

• Creatures. “The LORD sent fiery serpents” (v. 6), creatures He had held back until then (Deuteronomy 8:15).
• Means. He heals through a bronze image and supplies water through a dug well (vv. 9, 16–18).
• Nations and rulers. He had allowed Sihon to take Moab’s land before Israel arrived (v. 26), and He hardened Sihon’s spirit (Deuteronomy 2:30).

Confessional witness. God “doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least” (WCF 5.1). “God, in his ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at his pleasure” (WCF 5.3). His providence extends even to sin, “and that not by a bare permission” (WCF 5.4), “yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God” (WCF 5.4). Of the hardened, the Confession says God gives them over, “whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others” (WCF 5.6). Above all, providence “after a most special manner, it taketh care of his church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof” (WCF 5.7).

An old observation. Matthew Henry saw providence in Sihon’s earlier conquest of Moab: the land was put into the hands of the Amorites, “who little think that they have it but as trustees till Israel come of age” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 21:21–35).

Practical implications. Believers can rest in God’s rule over hostile powers, over dangerous creatures, and over the long detours of life (Romans 8:28). God’s use of ordinary means calls us to diligent work and prayer, and His freedom above means calls us to hope when means fail.

The Justice and Long-Suffering of God

How the passage teaches it. The chapter displays God’s justice in the serpents (v. 6) and in the ban on the Amorite kings (vv. 3, 35). It displays His patience in the four centuries He waited before judging the Amorites (Genesis 15:16), and His mercy in the remedy He provided for rebels (vv. 8–9).

Confessional witness. The Westminster Confession describes God as “most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin” (WCF 2.1), and in the same sentence as “most just, and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty” (WCF 2.1). The Shorter Catechism lists His justice among His perfections, which are “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable” (WSC 4). The Confession does not set these attributes against one another, and neither does Numbers 21. The same God sends serpents and provides the cure.

How the two meet. The cross is where God’s justice and mercy fully meet. God put Christ forward as a propitiation (Romans 3:25), so that He might be “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). The ban on Sihon and Og is a sober preview of final judgment; the bronze serpent is a preview of the mercy that bears that judgment in the sinner’s place.

Practical implications. Believers should neither presume on God’s patience (Romans 2:4–5; 2 Peter 3:9) nor doubt His mercy. God’s delays in judgment are opportunities for repentance, and His judgments in history are warnings of the judgment to come (Acts 17:30–31). When the justice of God in texts like this troubles us, we should look to the cross, where the Judge Himself bore judgment for His people.

Adoption and the Fatherly Discipline of God

How the passage teaches it. God disciplined His people with serpents, and when they confessed He provided healing (vv. 6–9). The discipline was severe, yet it led to repentance and was followed at once by fresh gifts and victories (vv. 16–35). The camp included unbelievers, and many of that generation perished (Hebrews 3:16–19). For God’s true children, however, chastening is the discipline of a Father.

Confessional witness. The adopted children of God “are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him, as by a father: yet never cast off” (WCF 12.1). Justified believers may “fall under God’s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of his countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance” (WCF 11.5). The Confession explains that God sometimes leaves His children to temptation “to chastise them for their former sins” (WCF 5.5), “that they may be humbled” (WCF 5.5), and “to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself” (WCF 5.5).

Discipline and mercy together. Spurgeon, reflecting on how Numbers 21 moves from serpents to victories, noted that “many of our choicest mercies have come to us just after our very blackest sins” (Spurgeon, Sihon and Og, or Mercies in Detail, No. 1285). Fatherly discipline is never the last word.

Practical implications. Believers under God’s hand should not conclude that He has rejected them. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6). The right response is humble confession and renewed trust, and the expectation that discipline will yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).

The Second Commandment and the Purity of Worship

How the passage teaches it. The bronze serpent was made at God’s direct command for a specific purpose. Later Israel “made offerings to it,” and Hezekiah rightly “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made” (2 Kings 18:4). A God-appointed sign became an idol when it was treated as an object of worship.

Confessional witness. The Westminster Confession teaches that “the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will” (WCF 21.1), so that He may not be worshiped “under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture” (WCF 21.1). The Shorter Catechism states, “The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word” (WSC 51). The Larger Catechism forbids “all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God” (WLC 109) and requires, according to each one’s place and calling, “removing it, and all monuments of idolatry” (WLC 108). Hezekiah did exactly that. The Heidelberg Catechism adds that “we must not pretend to be wiser than God” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 98) by using images as teaching aids in worship.

Older writers. Thomas Watson answered the objection that Moses made an image: “What! because Moses made an image by God’s appointment, may we set up an image of our own devising?” (Watson, The Ten Commandments). Calvin called the later worship of the serpent “a proof to us how inclined to superstition the human race is” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:9).

Practical implications. Christians should worship God only in the ways He has appointed. They should hold even God-given means, including the sacraments, church buildings and cherished traditions, as servants of faith in Christ, never as objects of trust. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Lawful Vows

How the passage teaches it. Before battle “Israel vowed a vow to the LORD” (v. 2), binding itself to devote the spoils of victory wholly to God. The LORD “heeded the voice of Israel” (v. 3), so the vow was accepted. The vow was grounded in God’s revealed sentence against the Canaanite cities, not in private zeal.

Confessional witness. The Westminster Confession teaches that “A vow is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness” (WCF 22.5). A vow “is not to be made to any creature, but to God alone” (WCF 22.6), and it may be made “in way of thankfulness for mercy received, or for the obtaining of what we want” (WCF 22.6). Yet “No man may vow to do anything forbidden in the Word of God” (WCF 22.7). The Larger Catechism lists “swearing by the name of God, and vowing unto him” (WLC 108) among the duties of the second commandment.

A pastoral caution. Spurgeon, who valued vows made in trouble, warned, “You are not to make such vows as these as though they were a sort of bribe to the Most High” (Spurgeon, Two Wilderness Incidents, No. 3214). A vow expresses dependence and gratitude; it does not purchase God’s help.

Practical implications. Christians should make vows rarely, soberly, and only for what God’s Word commands or permits, and they should keep them (Deuteronomy 23:21–23; Ecclesiastes 5:4–5). Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11:30–31) shows the danger of rash promises. Ordinary Christian vows, such as membership vows and marriage vows, deserve the same seriousness Israel showed at Hormah.

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Reformed Theology

One covenant of grace. Reformed theology reads Numbers 21 as a chapter within the one covenant of grace. The Westminster Confession teaches that under the law this covenant was administered “by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come” (WCF 7.5), and that “There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations” (WCF 7.6). The bronze serpent belongs with those types. The Israelite who looked in faith was trusting the same God, and in substance the same promised Redeemer, as the Christian who looks to the cross.

Typology. Reformed interpreters follow Jesus’ own reading (John 3:14–15). Calvin called the parallel “very perfect; since Christ, in order to rescue us from death, put on our flesh, not, indeed, subject to sin” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 21:8). In his John commentary he went further and asked whether the serpent was a sacramental sign like the manna, concluding, “I am led to think that this was also the case with the brazen serpent” (Calvin, Commentary on John, on John 3:14). Geerhardus Vos taught that an Old Testament type must first carry spiritual meaning for its own time before it points forward. The serpent fits that principle: Israel learned in the camp that healing comes from God through a means He appoints and faith receives, and the gospel reveals the fuller reality. D. A. Carson, in his commentary on John, emphasizes that John’s “lifted up” joins crucifixion and exaltation, so that the cross itself is the path to Christ’s glory.

Warfare, judgment and the church. Meredith Kline argued that the conquest was an intrusion of final judgment into Israel’s history. That keeps the ban from becoming a pattern for any nation or church, and it places Sihon and Og beside the last judgment rather than beside ordinary politics. The church inherits the chapter’s warfare in spiritual form (2 Corinthians 10:3–5; Ephesians 6:10–18). Spurgeon made the same move homiletically when he preached that God, who slew Sihon and Og, can also slay the believer’s sins (Spurgeon, Sihon and Og, or Mercies in Detail, No. 1285).

Israel and the church. Reformed theology sees the church as the continuation of God’s one people, not a separate program. Paul’s statement that these events “were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11) addresses a largely Gentile church as heirs of Israel’s history. G. K. Beale has argued at length that the church is the end-time Israel in whom the promises reach their fulfillment. The land east of the Jordan was a real inheritance and a pledge; its fuller meaning is the inheritance Abraham looked for, a “better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16), and the renewed earth the meek will inherit (Matthew 5:5; Romans 4:13).

Confessional emphases. The chapter supports the Reformed doctrines of justification by faith alone (WCF 11.1), the free offer of the gospel (WCF 7.3), providence over sin and hardening (WCF 5.4), the purity of worship (WCF 21.1), and the fatherly discipline of God’s children (WCF 12.1). Sinclair Ferguson has stressed that holiness flows from union with Christ rather than from self-effort, and the look of faith in this chapter pictures that dependence.

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Dispensational Theology

Distinct dispensations. Dispensational theology reads Numbers 21 as part of Israel’s history under the dispensation of law, which runs from Sinai to the cross. C. I. Scofield’s system treated the Mosaic period as a distinct stewardship in which Israel was tested under the law and repeatedly failed; the grumbling of verse 5 is one more instance of that failure. The church, in this view, belongs to a different dispensation, the age of grace, and is not the subject of the promises made to national Israel.

Literal-grammatical hermeneutic. Dispensationalists stress that the events are to be read first as literal history. The serpents were real serpents, the healing was physical, and the kingdoms of Sihon and Og were real territories. Charles Ryrie emphasized consistent literal interpretation as a core principle of the system.

Typology. Dispensationalists fully accept the bronze serpent as a type of Christ, because Jesus Himself makes the connection (John 3:14–15). The Scofield tradition, with its detailed typology of Old Testament objects, has commonly read the bronze material as a symbol of divine judgment and the serpent as sin judged in Christ. Some dispensational writers follow that older, richly typological approach, while others limit types to those the New Testament identifies; the latter would hesitate to read the well at Beer as a type of the Spirit without clear New Testament warrant.

Israel and the land. Dispensationalism emphasizes that the land promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:18–21) is unconditional and belongs to ethnic Israel. John Walvoord argued that the land promises have never been completely fulfilled and await literal fulfillment in the future millennial kingdom. On this reading the conquests of Numbers 21 are a partial, historical fulfillment of the land promise that points forward to a future, complete fulfillment for national Israel. Dispensationalists distinguish the Transjordan, which Israel received through conquest, from the land within the borders of Numbers 34, and they note that the full dimensions of the Genesis promise have not yet been realized.

Israel and the church distinct. J. Dwight Pentecost, in his study of the kingdom program, distinguished the theocratic kingdom promised to Israel from the church, which shares in Israel’s spiritual blessings without replacing Israel. Paul’s use of this chapter in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 is read as the application of an example rather than a statement that the church is Israel. The wilderness generation provides moral warnings for Christians, but the national promises remain Israel’s.

Progressive dispensationalism. Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock have developed a progressive form of dispensationalism that sees greater continuity between the dispensations and between Israel and the church, while still affirming a future for national Israel. Progressive dispensationalists would give more room to the chapter’s typological connections to Christ and the church, while maintaining that the land promise will be fulfilled for Israel in the coming kingdom.

Points of agreement and difference. Reformed and dispensational interpreters agree that Numbers 21 records real history, that the bronze serpent is a divinely intended type of Christ’s death, that salvation in every age is by grace through faith, and that the conquests were God’s judgment for a unique moment and not a pattern for later war. They differ chiefly on the land: dispensationalists expect a future literal fulfillment for national Israel, while Reformed interpreters see the land promise expanded and fulfilled in Christ and the new creation. Neither position requires any particular stance on modern political questions, and this study takes none.

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Bibliography

Commentaries and Expositions

• Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Bible. 1834. Numbers 21.
• Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, Arranged in the Form of a Harmony. Translated by Charles William Bingham. Calvin Translation Society. (Cited as Harmony of the Law.)
• Calvin, John. Commentary on the Gospel According to John. Volume 1. Calvin Translation Society.
• Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible. Numbers 21.
• Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete). Numbers 21.
• Henry, Matthew. Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Numbers 21.
• Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch. Numbers 21.
• Poole, Matthew. Annotations upon the Holy Bible (Commentary). Numbers 21.
• Spence, H. D. M., and Joseph S. Exell, eds. The Pulpit Commentary. Numbers 21.

Sermons and Devotional Works

• Spurgeon, Charles H. The Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent. Sermon No. 153.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Man’s Ruin and God’s Remedy. Sermon No. 285.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. A Song at the Wellhead. Sermon No. 776.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Sihon and Og, or Mercies in Detail. Sermon No. 1285.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Number 1500, or Lifting Up the Bronze Serpent. Sermon No. 1500.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Two Wilderness Incidents. Sermon No. 3214.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Morning and Evening. Evening reading for June 17.

Theological Works

• Owen, John. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith.
• Watson, Thomas. A Body of Divinity.
• Watson, Thomas. The Ten Commandments.
• Vos, Geerhardus. Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments.
• Kline, Meredith G. Writings on the ethics of the conquest (intrusion ethics).
• Beale, G. K. Writings on the biblical theology of the church as end-time Israel.
• Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John (Pillar New Testament Commentary).
• Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Whole Christ.

Dispensational Works

• Scofield, C. I. The Scofield Reference Bible.
• Ryrie, Charles C. Dispensationalism.
• Walvoord, John F. Writings on Israel and the millennial kingdom.
• Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come.
• Blaising, Craig A., and Darrell L. Bock. Progressive Dispensationalism.

Confessional Standards

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (American revision, as published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church).
• The Westminster Larger Catechism.
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism.
• The Heidelberg Catechism.
• The Canons of Dort.

Reference Works

• Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament.
• Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew and Greek dictionaries.
• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton: Crossway.