“The people came to Moses and said: We sinned, for we spoke against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, and He will remove the serpent from us. Moses prayed on behalf of the people” (Numbers 21:7). “The people came to Moses and said: We sinned” – they knew that they had spoken against Moses, and they prostrated themselves before him and said: “Pray to the Lord, and He will remove [the serpent] from us” – it was a single serpent. “[Moses] prayed” – to inform you of Moses’s humility; he did not hesitate to plead for mercy on their behalf, and to inform you of the power of repentance.
Once they said: “We sinned,” he was immediately placated before them, as the one from whom forgiveness is asked must not become cruel. Likewise it says: “Abraham prayed to God, and God healed [Avimelekh]” (Genesis 20:17). Likewise it says: “The Lord restored Job’s loss when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10). From where is it derived that if one wronged another and he says to him: I sinned, that he is called a sinner if he does not forgive him?
It is as it is stated: “I too, far be it from me to sin against the Lord, to cease to pray on your behalf. (I Samuel 12:23). When? It was when they came and said: We sinned, as it is stated: “The people said to Samuel: We have sinned because we transgressed the directive of the Lord and your words” (I Samuel 12:19).66The bracketed verse that appears in the Hebrew without vocalization and in English in pointed brackets is the actual verse.
The verse that appears unbracketed and with vocalization is the non-existent verse that appears in the midrash. He responded: “Far be it from me to sin against the Lord.” “The Lord said to Moses: Craft for yourself a fiery serpent, and place it upon a standard; it will be, that anyone who was bitten, if he will see it he will live” (Numbers 21:8). “The Lord said to Moses: Craft for yourself a fiery serpent…it will be, that anyone who was bitten” – not only one who was bitten by a serpent, but rather “anyone who was bitten” – even if he was bitten by a cobra, a scorpion, a wild beast, or a dog.
“Moses crafted a bronze serpent and placed it on the standard [nes]” (Numbers 21:9) – he cast it into the air and it remained.67The word nes can also mean, “the miracle.”