1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Numbers 21:6 | *Wherefore the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, which bit them, and killed many of them. Judith 8:25.; Wisdom 16:5.; 1 Corinthians 10:9. | Fiery serpents. They are so called, because they that were bitten by them were burnt with a violent heat. (Challoner) --- Hence they are called seraphim, by which name an order of angels is known. The Egyptians adored a serpent which they called serapis, at Rome; and they represented their god serapis, with a serpent entwining a monstrous figure, composed of a lion, a dog, and a wolf. (Macrob. Saturn 1:20.) The seraph was a winged serpent, Isaias 14:29. 30:6. Such often infested Egypt, in spring, coming from Arabia, unless they were intercepted by the ibis. Their wings resembled those of bats. (Herodotus, 2:76.; Mela, etc.) God probably sent some of this description into the camp of the Israelites. (Calmet) --- Some call them proester, (Pliny, [Natural History?] 24:13,) from their burning; others the hydra, or, when out of water, the chershydra, the venom of which is most dangerous. The Septuagint style them simply, "the destroying, or deadly serpents." See Bochart, T. 2:B. 3:13.; Deuteronomy 8:15.; Wisdom 16:5, 10.) (Haydock) |