Bible lesson
Chapter 32: Meribah, Aaron’s Death, the Serpent, and the Amorite Kings
Study notes, questions and the Bible passages that Kingdoms of Scripture Chapter 32 covers, as the game’s chapter map shows them. Read the passages first in the Kingdoms of Scripture Bible, the text the game quotes: the game’s choices, maps and staging are reconstructions, not scripture. This page is not a church lesson and adds no doctrine.
Study notes
Yahweh says Moses and Aaron will not lead the people into the land because they did not trust him, and Aaron dies on the mountaintop. Moses sets a bronze snake on a pole so anyone bitten can look and live, and Israel strikes down Og king of Bashan together with all his people, leaving no survivor, and takes his land.
From Numbers 20:12 (KoS), Numbers 20:28–29 (KoS), Numbers 21:8–9 (KoS), Numbers 21:33–35 (KoS).
These notes and questions are original study helps written for this site, not scripture. The verses shown with each question are quoted from the Kingdoms of Scripture Bible.
- Chapter
- 32
- Title
- Meribah, Aaron’s Death, the Serpent, and the Amorite Kings
- Bible passages
- Numbers 20:1–21:35
- Read in the Kingdoms of Scripture Bible
- The chapter opens with
Yahweh said to Moses, Make yourself a burning one, and set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, shall live. Moses made a snake of bronze and set it on the pole. If a snake bit a man, and he looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Note · Translation Saraf is a burning one, the same word as the snakes. Nes is a pole, a standard set up to be seen.
Note · Translation Nachash and nechoshet sit next to each other: a snake, and bronze. The wordplay is in the Hebrew. Both words are printed.
Notice and discuss
Read each passage, then think about the question on your own or talk it over with others. No answers are collected.
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What complaints do the people make to Moses about the place he has brought them to?
The people contended with Moses and said, If only we had expired when our brothers expired before Yahweh. Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, for us to die there, we and our livestock? Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to bring us to this bad place? It is not a place of seed, or fig, or vine, or pomegranate, and there is no water to drink.
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What do the people admit when they come to Moses, and what do they ask him to do?
The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we spoke against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, and let him take the snake away from us. Moses prayed for the people.
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What does Israel promise Sihon, the Amorite king, about how they will pass through his land?
Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn into field or vineyard. We will not drink water from a well. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed your border.
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Kingdoms of Scripture Bible (KoS). CC BY 4.0. Source: bible.kingdomsofscripture.com. Quotations are whole published verses, matched to the game’s chapter references.