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
This describes King Hezekiah's religious reforms around 715 BC, where he worked to restore proper worship of God in Judah. The bronze serpent mentioned was originally made by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8-9) as God commanded, to heal people from snake bites. However, over the centuries, the Israelites had begun treating this bronze snake as an idol to be worshiped rather than remembering it as simply a tool God had used.
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