He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
He tore down the worship sites on hills, smashed the idols, cut down the sacred poles, and broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made. The Israelites had been burning incense to it as an act of worship right up until that time, and he called it 'just a piece of bronze.'
King Hezekiah destroyed all the false worship sites and idols in Israel, including even the bronze snake Moses had made, because people had started worshiping it instead of God.
📚 Historical Context
In the 8th century BC, King Hezekiah of Judah led a religious reform to eliminate idolatry and restore true worship of God, as the nation had fallen into syncretistic practices mixing pagan elements with their faith. The bronze serpent, which Moses had made centuries earlier as a means of God's deliverance from snake bites in the wilderness, had become an idol that the people worshiped by burning incense to it, calling it Nehushtan. This destruction was part of Hezekiah's broader efforts to obey God's laws and centralize worship in the Jerusalem temple.
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