Numbers 21:2-17

²And Israel bound himself by a vow to the Lord, and said, If thou shalt betake this people in mine hand, I shall do away their cities.

³And the Lord heard the prayers of Israel, and betook to them the Canaanites; and Israel killed him, and destroyed his cities; and Israel called the name of that place Hormah, that is, cursing.

⁴Soothly Israel went forth from the hill of Hor, by the way that leadeth to the Red Sea, that they would compass the land of Edom; and it began to annoy the people, of the way and of the travail.

⁵And the people spake against the Lord, and Moses, and said, Why leddest thou us out of Egypt, that we should die in wilderness? bread faileth, waters be not; our soul loatheth now on this meat most light.

⁶Wherefore the Lord sent fired serpents or fiery adders into the people; at the wounds of which serpents, and the deaths of full many men,

⁷they came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we spake against the Lord, and thee; pray thou, that he take away from us the serpents. And Moses prayed for the people;

⁸and the Lord said to him, Make thou a brazen serpent, and set thou it in a perch; he that is smitten and beholdeth it, shall live.

⁹Therefore Moses made a serpent of brass, and setted in a perch; and men hurt, and beholding it, were healed.

¹⁰And the sons of Israel went forth, and setted tents in Oboth;

¹¹from whence they went forth, and setted tents in Iyeabarim, in the wilderness that beholdeth Moab, against the east coast.

¹²And they moved from thence, and came to the strand of Zared;

¹³which they left, and setted tents against Arnon, which is in the desert, and it appeareth in the coasts of Amorites. Forsooth Arnon is the term of Moab, and parteth Moabites and Amorites.

¹⁴Wherefore it is said in the book of battles of the Lord, As he did in the Red Sea, so he shall do in the strands of Arnon;

¹⁵the hard rocks of the strands were bowed down, that they shall rest in Ar, or abide there, and should lie in the coasts of Moabites.

¹⁶From that place the pit appeared, of which the Lord spake to Moses, Gather thou together the people, and I shall give water to it.

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song, The water of the pit, ascend or go up; they sang together,