Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
Impaling a snake on a pole will prevent venom from affecting people.
Medicine
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The cited passage
What current science says
Medically, survival from snakebite depends on venom dose, bite location, and treatment modalities such as antivenom and supportive care. Simply looking at an object cannot neutralize venom toxins in the blood and tissues; there is no known biological pathway by which vision alone can reverse envenomation. The story is better understood as religious symbolism and placebo-like psychological comfort, rather than as real toxicology or emergency medicine.
What the text says
God's cure for snakebite: a brass serpent on a pole.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.