Nehushtan
Also known as: Bronze Serpent
The name Israel eventually gave to the bronze serpent Moses set up in the wilderness, after the people began worshipping it as an idol. King Hezekiah destroyed it once it carried that name.
Nehushtan began as an act of obedience, not idolatry. In Numbers 21, venomous snakes struck the Israelite camp after the people spoke against God and Moses. When they repented, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole; anyone bitten who looked at it would live. Moses built exactly what he was told to build, and it served its healing purpose without incident for generations.
The shift happened over time, not at the moment of its creation. By the reign of King Hezekiah, Israel had begun burning incense to the same bronze serpent and had given it the name Nehushtan. What was built for a single act of healing had become an object of worship in its own right.
2 Kings 18:4 credits Hezekiah with breaking Nehushtan in pieces as part of a broader reform to remove idol worship from Judah, alongside removing high places and sacred pillars.
Scripture References
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