[94] Does not Moses, then, when celebrating the destruction of the riders, naturally pray for complete salvation for the horsemen? For these are able by applying bit and bridle to the irrational faculties to curb the excessive violence of their movement. We must say, then, what his prayer is: “Let Dan,” he says, “be a serpent on the road, seated upon the track, biting the heel of the horse; and the horseman shall fall backwards, waiting for the salvation of the Lord” (Gen. 49:17 f.).
[95] What he intimates by the prayer, we must point out. “Dan” means “judgement” or “sifting.” The faculty, then, which tests and investigates and determines and, in a manner, judges all the soul’s concerns, he likened to a serpent. This is a creature tortuous in its movements, of great intelligence, ready to shew fight, and most capable of defending itself against wrongful aggression. He did not liken the faculty to the serpent that played the friend and gave advice to “Life”—whom in our own language we call “Eve”—but to the serpent made by Moses out of material brass. When those who had been bittten by the venomous serpents looked upon this one, though at the point of death, they are said to have lived on and in no case to have died (Numb. 21:8).