Bible Dictionaries
Nehushtan

Holman Bible Dictionary

(nih huhssh' tan) Name of a “brazen serpent” destroyed by King Hezekiah as part of an attempt to reform Judah's life and worship (2 Kings 18:4 ). The object was believed to be the one Moses fashioned to relieve a plague in the Israelite camp during the Exodus (Numbers 21:8-9 ). The word Nehushtan probably is a play on words in the Hebrew, the word for bronze being very similar. Nehushtan probably was a serpentine nature god worshiped in connection with the Canaanite cults. King Jehoiachin's mother was Nehushta ( 2 Kings 24:8 ) probably in honor of this foreign deity. See Bronze Serpent .