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Hezekiah Rules in Judah

18 Hezekiah son of Ahaz began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshea’s reign in Israel. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah,[a] the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the pagan shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called Nehushtan.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 18:2 As in parallel text at 2 Chr 29:1; Hebrew reads Abi, a variant spelling of Abijah.
  2. 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew terms that mean “snake,” “bronze,” and “unclean thing.”

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

18 Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. Hezekiah did right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that David his father (ancestor) had done. He removed the high places [of pagan worship], broke down the images (memorial stones) and cut down the Asherim. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the Israelites had burned incense to it; and it was called [a]Nehushtan [a bronze sculpture].(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 18:4 The bronze serpent had served God’s purpose for it, and Hezekiah observed correctly that it was nothing more than a piece of art. Unfortunately, the Israelites had forgotten that the serpent had been nothing more than a tool of God, and they had been worshiping the sculpture itself as if it were a god.