Nehushtan

In the biblical Book of Numbers, the Nehushtan (or Nohestan) (Hebrew: נחושתן or נחש הנחושת) was a bronze serpent on a pole which God told Moses to erect to protect the Israelites who saw it from dying from the bites of the "fiery serpents" which God had sent to punish them for speaking against God and Moses.

King Hezekiah later instituted a religious iconoclastic reform and destroyed "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". (2 Kings 18:4)

The name is transliterated as "Nohestan" in the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, as "N’chushtan" in the Complete Jewish Bible and as "Nechushtan" in the Orthodox Jewish Bible.

The English Standard Version of the Bible and the majority of contemporary English translations refer to the serpent as made of 'bronze', whereas the King James Version and a number of other versions state 'brass'. The Douai-Rheims 1899 edition has 'brazen'. Eugene H. Peterson, who translated the Bible as The Message, opted for 'a snake of fiery copper'. The reference in 2 Kings 18:4 is translated as 'brasen' in the King James Version and the Blue, Red and Gold Letter translation.

Snake cults had been well established in Canaan in the Bronze Age: archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo, one at Gezer, one in the Kodesh Hakodashim (Holy of Holies) of the Area H temple at Hazor, and two at Shechem.

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