So Moses made a bronze serpent: For bronze see the comments on 16.39. Some scholars feel that the Hebrew term for bronze is better rendered “copper” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) in this context, since copper looks fiery with its reddish color (so Wenham, page 157; Ashley, page 405). The Hebrew words for bronze (nechoshet) and serpent (nachash) sound similar, so there is a wordplay here.

And set it on a pole: See verse 8. A pole is literally “the pole” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond) since it is known at this point in the story. Revised Standard Version and most other translations say “a pole” for naturalness.

And if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live may be rendered “Then when a snake bit anyone, that person looked at the bronze snake and lived” (New Century Version). See verse 8.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .