Hebrew word · H5180
נְחֻשְׁתָּן
nechushtan
Nehushtan
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
§ Nehushtan = "a thing of brass"
name by which the brazen serpent made by Moses in the wilderness was worshipped in the time of king Hezekiah of Judah before he destroyed it
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
Similar words
Where it appears
2 Kings · 1
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2 Kings 18:4 נְחֻשְׁתָּֽן׃ Nehushtan
He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.
Here: A proper name that combines the sounds of 'snake' and 'bronze', something like 'the Bronze-Snake thing'. Whether it was a revered cult name or a scornful label ('just a lump of bronze') is debated.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.