---
title: Numbers 21:8
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/numbers-21-8/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/numbers-21-8.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Numbers 21:8
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Numbers 21:8

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”

## JW Usage

Jehovah's Witnesses recognise that God commanded Moses to make the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:8 and that Jesus referenced it in John 3:14 as a type of his own death. However, they pair this passage with 2 Kings 18:4, where Hezekiah destroyed the same serpent because the Israelites had begun burning incense to it. The Watchtower uses the Hezekiah episode to argue that religious images inevitably become idolatrous and should therefore never be made or displayed. Reasoning From the Scriptures (pp. 183-187) extends this to crosses, nativity scenes, and any religious art, citing Exodus 20:4-5 as a blanket prohibition on representational images.

## Protestant Usage

Numbers 21:8 is the decisive Old Testament text against a blanket ban on religious images. God himself commanded Moses to make a metal replica of a cursed creature and mount it on a pole for a salvific purpose — the people who looked at it lived. The same God who gave the second commandment in Exodus 20:4 ordered this image four books later, which demonstrates that Exodus 20:4-5 prohibits images made for cultic worship, not representational art as such. This reading is confirmed by the tabernacle and temple, where God commanded cherubim on the ark (Exodus 25:18), cherubim woven into the curtains (Exodus 26:1), and carved lions, oxen, and palm trees throughout Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6-7). The bronze serpent stood as a memorial for seven hundred years without condemnation; Hezekiah destroyed it only when the people began worshipping it (2 Kings 18:4). The Watchtower's own Insight on the Scriptures "Copper Serpent" entry concedes this point. Most significantly, Jesus in John 3:14 adopted the bronze serpent as the prophetic type of his own crucifixion, investing this God-commanded image with christological meaning.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Cross Is Not Pagan — And Paul Boasted In It](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/cross-pagan-symbol-rebuttal.md) — Galatians 6:14 / 1 Corinthians 1:18 / Colossians 2:14 [Practice]
- [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) — Numbers 21:8 / 2 Kings 18:4 / Exodus 25:18 [Practice]