Numbers 21:6

Summary

The verse narrates that Yehovah sent a specific kind of snake among the Israelite people, these snakes bit the people, and as a result many Israelites died. The action unfolds in three sequential narrative clauses connected by the vav-consecutive construction typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling.

Key words

• y.sha.Lach ("he sent", H7971G) — piel stem, narrative form; the piel here carries an intensive or directed sense of sending, initiating the divine action.
• ha.nne.cha.Shim ("the snakes", H5175) — masculine plural noun with definite article, identifying the concrete animal.
• ha.sse.ra.Fim ("the saraphs", H8314A) — masculine plural noun with definite article, standing in apposition to nechashim; from the same root as the verb "to burn," it functions here as a qualifying term for the snakes.
• y.na.she.Khu ("they bit", H5391A) — piel stem, narrative form, third person plural; describes the biting as a repeated or intensive action of the snakes.
• i.Ya.mot ("it died", H4191) — qal (simple) stem, narrative form; a plain, non-intensive verb marking the resulting deaths.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a tight chain of three narrative clauses, each introduced by the vav-consecutive (va, H9001), which in Biblical Hebrew storytelling signals sequential action: "and he sent... and they bit... and it died." This chaining produces a cause-and-effect rhythm — divine action, animal action, human consequence — without any subordinating conjunctions.

The object of the sending, ha.nne.cha.Shim ha.sse.ra.Fim, literally "the snakes, the saraphs," places two definite plural nouns side by side in apposition. Nechashim (H5175) is the ordinary word for snakes, while seraphim (H8314A) shares its root with the verb "to burn," functioning here as a descriptive term attached to the snakes rather than as a separate class of being. The double definite article on both nouns suggests the text treats this as a known, specific type of creature within the narrative world.

The verb yamot ("it died," H4191) is in the simple qal stem, contrasting grammatically with the two piel-stem verbs surrounding it (yeshallach, "he sent"; yenashekhu, "they bit"). The shift from the intensive piel forms describing the sending and biting to the plain qal form for dying marks the final clause as a resulting state rather than a deliberate intensive action — the death is the outcome, not an act performed with force by an agent.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ha.sse.ra.Fim ("the saraphs," H8314A) is rendered in the Septuagint as τοὺς θανατοῦντας, "the death-dealing ones," an interpretive translation rather than a transliteration, emphasizing lethal effect over the root's association with burning. The Vulgate instead reads ignitos serpentes, "fiery serpents," which reflects the root's connection to burning/fire rather than the LXX's emphasis on deadliness. Both ancient versions thus interpret the same Hebrew term differently, one stressing lethality, the other stressing a fiery quality, while the Hebrew text itself simply juxtaposes "snakes" and "saraphs" without specifying which sense is intended.