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NEHUSHTAN

(Heb. nĕḥuštān)

A proper name or a pun based on Heb. nĕḥōšeṯ, “bronze/copper,” and nāḥāš, “serpent” (i.e., “only a bit of brass”; cf. Heb. “serpent of bronze,” Num. 21:9). Such crafted creatures were common in the ancient Near East. During Hezekiah’s reforms aimed at the removal of idolatry from Judah (2 Kgs. 18:4), this appellation was applied to the bronze serpent made by Moses during Israel’s wilderness wanderings, which ministered divine healing when gazed upon by anyone with a deadly snake bite (Num. 21:4-9; cf. 1 Cor. 10:9-11). Righteous King Hezekiah smashed this serpentine statue because it was being worshipped as a god with offerings from the people of Israel (2 Kgs. 18:1-4; cf. 17:35-40). A question is whether the final phrase in 2 Kgs. 18:4 (wayyiqrāʾ-lô nĕḥuštān) means this title was the popular, pre-existing name for the idol (“Now it was called Nehushtan”) or was provided contemptuously at that point by Hezekiah (“Now he [Hezekiah] called/named it Nehushtan”). Some suggest the term sounds like the Hebrew for “unclean thing.”

Bibliography. K. R. Joines, “The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult,” JBL 87 (1968): 245-56; Serpent Symbolism in the Old Testament (Haddonfield, N.J., 1974); J. A. Montgomery, “Hebraica,” JAOS 58 (1938): 131.

W. Creighton Marlowe

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

NEHUSHTAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)