--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 171 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/171/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 171. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/171/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 171. Numbers · 20 of 34 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/171/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/171/#p-N [¶0] Nor could he yet the danger doubt, nor fear [¶1] That death with all its terrors threatened there. [¶2] When lo! unseen, the secret venom spreads, [¶3] And every nobler part at once invades; [¶4] Swift flames consume the marrow and the brain, [¶5] And the scorched entrails rage with burning pain; [¶6] Upon his heart the thirsty poisons prey, [¶7] And drain the sacred juice of life away. [¶8] No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue, [¶9] But cleaving to the parched roof it hung; [¶10] No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat, [¶11] To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat. [¶12] Rowe. [¶13] The effects of the bite of the prester are not less terrible: "Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri [¶14] Percussit prester: illi rubor igneus ora [¶15] Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura, [¶16] Miscens cuncta tumor toto jam corpore major: [¶17] Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra [¶18] Effiatur sanies, late tollente veneno." [¶19] A fate of different kind Nasidius found, [¶20] A burning prester gave the deadly wound; [¶21] And straight, a sudden flame began to spread, [¶22] And paint his visage with a glowing red. [¶23] With swift expansion swells the bloated skin. [¶24] Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen; [¶25] While the fair human form lies lost within. [¶26] The puffy poison spreads, and leaves around, [¶27] Till all the man is in the monster drowned. [¶28] Rowe. [¶29] Bochart supposes that the hydrus or chersydrus is meant; a serpent that lives in marshy places, the bite of which produces the most terrible inflammations, burning heat, fetid vomitings, and a putrid solution of the whole body. See his works, vol. iii., col. 421. It is more likely to have been a serpent of the prester or dipsas kind, as the wilderness through which the Israelites passed did neither afford rivers nor marshes, though Bochart endeavors to prove that there might have been marshes in that part; but his arguments have very little weight. Nor is there need of a water serpent as long as the prester or dipsas, which abound in the deserts of Libya, might have abounded in the deserts of Arabia also. But very probably the serpents themselves were immediately sent by God for the chastisement of this rebellious people. The cure was certainly preternatural; this no person doubts; and why might not the agent be so, that inflicted the disease? ### Verse 8 [¶31] Make thee a fiery serpent - Literally, make thee a seraph. [¶32] And put it upon a pole - על נס al nes, upon a standard or ensign. ### Verse 9 [¶34] And Moses made a serpent of brass - נחש נחשת nechash nechosheth. Hence we find that the word for brass or copper comes from the same root with nachash, which here signifies a serpent, probably on account of the color; as most serpents, especially those of the bright spotted kind, have a very glistening appearance, and those who have brown or yellow spots appear something like burnished brass: but the true meaning of the root cannot be easily ascertained. On the subject of the cure of the serpent-bitten Israelites, by looking at the brazen serpent, there is a good comment in the book of The Wisdom of Solomon, (Apoch). [Num 16:4-12], in which are these remarkable words: "They were admonished, having a sign of salvation, (i. e., the brazen serpent), to put them in remembrance of the commandments of thy law. For he that turned himself towards it was not saved by the Thing that he saw, but by Thee, that art the Savior of all." To the circumstance of looking at the brazen serpent in order to be healed, our Lord refers, [Joh 3:14], [Joh 3:15] : "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The brazen serpent was certainly no type of Jesus Christ; but from our Lord's words we may learn, [¶35] 1. That as the serpent was lifted up on the pole or ensign, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross. [¶36] 2. That as the Israelites were to look at the brazen serpent, so sinners must look to Christ for salvation. [¶37] 3. That as God provided no other remedy than this looking for the wounded Israelites, so he has provided no other way of salvation than faith in the blood of his Son. [¶38] 4. That as he who looked at the brazen serpent was cured and did live, so he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life. [¶39] 5. That as neither the serpent, nor looking at it, but the invisible power of God healed the people, so neither the cross of Christ, nor his merely being crucified, but the pardon he has bought by his blood, communicated by the powerful energy of his Spirit, saves the souls of men. [¶40] May not all these things be plainly seen in the circumstances of this transaction, without making the serpent a type of Jesus Christ, (the most exceptionable that could possibly be chosen), and running the parallel, as some have done, through ten or a dozen particulars? ### Verse 12 [¶42] They - pitched in the valley of Zared - נחל זרד nachal zared. This should be translated the brook Zared, as it is in [Deu 2:13], [Deu 2:14]. This stream has its origin in the mountains eastward of Moab, and runs from east to west, and discharges itself into the Dead Sea. ### Verse 13 [¶44] Arnon - Another river which takes its rise in the mountains of Moab, and, after having separated the ancient territories of the Moabites and Ammonites, falls into the Dead Sea, near the mouth of Jordan.