Nehushtan

In the biblical Books of Kings (2 Kings 18:4; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan (/nəˈhʊʃtən/; Hebrew: נְחֻשְׁתָּן Nəḥuštān [nəħuʃtaːn]) is the bronze image of a serpent on a pole. The image is described in the Book of Numbers, where Yahweh instructed Moses to erect it so that the Israelites who saw it would be cured and be protected from dying from the bites of the "fiery serpents", which Yahweh had sent to punish them for speaking against Him and Moses (Numbers 21:4–9).

According to the Book of Kings, King Hezekiah institutes an iconoclastic reform that included the destruction of "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan".^[1]