Israel traveled from Mount Hor by the Red Sea road to go around Edom. The long route made the people impatient. They spoke against God and Moses, asking why they had been brought from Egypt to die in the wilderness. They said there was no bread or water and that they loathed the miserable food.
The LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people. The snakes bit them, and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and confessed that they had sinned by speaking against the LORD and Moses. They asked him to pray that the snakes be taken away. Moses prayed for them.
God told Moses to make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole, so that anyone bitten who looked at it would live. Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. When a snake bit someone, that person looked at the bronze serpent and lived.