Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Messagewho led you through that vast and terrifying wilderness, where fiery serpents and scorpions prowled, a dried-out, waterless wasteland—who struck water for you from solid flint,
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.Gwho led you through the great and terrifying wilderness—of fiery serpents and scorpions, a parched land where there was no water—who brought water out of the flinty rock for you,
KJV
King James VersionWho led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
BSB
Berean Standard BibleHe led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.
Footnotes
*Nachash saraf* (נָחָשׁ שָׂרָף)—'fiery/burning serpent'—is the very creature that appears in Numbers 21:6-9, where YHWH sends the serpents as judgment and then commands Moshe to lift a bronze one on a pole for healing. Yeshua cites that episode explicitly in John 3:14-15: 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' The wilderness terrors mentioned here are therefore not merely historical colour but typological markers: the same landscape of judgment and miraculous rescue points forward to Calvary. FOG renders 'fiery serpents' to preserve the creature's literal description; FOG Message adds 'prowled' to dramatise the existential menace of the terrain.