The Pharaoh Syndrome
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. Numbers 21:6 NASB
Sent – The Hebrew verb šālaḥ has three different linguistic domains. The first is the way we typically read a verb like “send,” i.e., compelling or transmitting someone or something from one place to another. “I sent him a letter,” or “Send him on a mission.” Many biblical passages use šālaḥ in this way.
The second meaning of the verb is “to send away,” found in verses like Genesis 12:20 and Genesis 3:23 where it means “to expel.” “Divorce is a sending away of the wife (Deut 22:19, 29; Isa 50:1).”[1]
There is another domain, one that is quite revealing in this passage in Numbers.
The third meaning “let loose, free” is also found mostly in the Piel. It is used in the mild sense of formally allowing a guest to leave (Gen 18:16; 24:54) or in the stronger sense of releasing captives such as Israel in Egypt (Ex 4:21), the exiles in Babylon (Isa 45:13), and the prisoners in the pit (Zech 9:11). In Ps 81:12 God gives rebellious Israel up to go their own ways and to suffer the consequences. . . . Those passages in which God releases various types of plagues on his people should no doubt be regarded in this same category, since the Piel is used. This means that God removes his protective hand and unleashes various hostile forces (Num 21:6; Jer 9:16; Amos 4:10 etc.).[2]
What this means is that God didn’t send the serpents. He merely removed His protective hand. Nehama Leibowitz makes this point:
If the serpents had not bitten them till now, it was only thanks to Divine Providence which had been watching over them, leading them through that great and terrible wilderness and not allowing the serpents to touch them, just as He did not allow the drought to overcome them with thirst but drew out water from the rock. The children of Israel, however, had spurned the Almighty’s supernatural intervention, not wishing to live in the bread He provided, but aspiring to lead a more normal “natural” existence. He allowed the serpents to behave in their natural manner.[3]
This form of “punishment” is, in fact, a reminder of prior, unacknowledged divine protection. Like the Pharaoh syndrome; this is a moment when God simply withdraws His hand and lets the natural world have its way. If you weren’t cognizant of what is really keeping you alive, perhaps a little “bite” will remind you.
Topical Index: serpent, bite, send, šālaḥ, protection, Numbers 21:6
[1] Austel, H. J. (1999). 2394 שָׁלַח. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 928). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Bamidbar, p. 262.
