![pre-jewish bronze age mythology pre-jewish bronze age mythology](https://brewminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TBAL04.png)
The model is used here apotropaically, to protect or in this case to heal the Israelites from the venom of the real snakes that this object is meant to represent. This story may reflect sympathetic magic, where one uses a symbolic model of an object to affect what happens to the real object-like a voodoo doll. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover.” 21:9 Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover. Num 21:8 Then YHWH said to Moses, “Make a saraph figure and mount it on a standard.
![pre-jewish bronze age mythology pre-jewish bronze age mythology](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/2321/2017/08/10185644/Screen-Shot-2017-08-10-at-11.56.30-AM-247x300.png)
Intercede with YHWH to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people (NJPS with adjustments). 21:7The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against YHWH and against you. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. Num 21:6 YHWH sent saraph serpents against the people. In this story, once again, God has had enough and decides to punish the Israelites, this time, sending saraph serpents to attack them. The mysterious account of the copper (or bronze) serpent (Num 21:4-9) is part of a catalogue of stories in the Torah that involve Israelite grumbling-generally about the dearth of food or water in the wilderness-and the consequences of that grumbling.