And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.
All Commentaries on Numbers 21:6 Go To Numbers 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Fiery serpents. They are so called, because they that were bitten by them were burnt with a violent heat. (Challoner)
Hence they are called seraphim, by which name an order of angels is known. The Egyptians adored a serpent which they called serapis, at Rome; and they represented their god serapis, with a serpent entwining a monstrous figure, composed of a lion, a dog, and a wolf. (Macrob. Saturn i. 20.) The seraph was a winged serpent, Isaias xiv. 29. xxx. 6. Such often infested Egypt, in spring, coming from Arabia, unless they were intercepted by the ibis. Their wings resembled those of bats. (Herodotus, ii. 76.; Mela) God probably sent some of this description into the camp of the Israelites. (Calmet)
Some call them proester, (Pliny, xxiv. 13,) from their burning; others the hydra, or, when out of water, the chershydra, the venom of which is most dangerous. The Septuagint style them simply, "the destroying, or deadly serpents. "See Bo chart, T. ii. B. iii. 13.; Deuteronomy viii. 15.; Wisdom xvi. 5, 10.) (Haydock)
