Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
” The lapse of nearly one thousand years had invested the “brazen serpent” with a mysterious sanctity; and in order to deliver the people from their infatuation, and impress them with the idea of its worthlessness, Hezekiah called it, in contempt, “Nehushtan,” a brazen thing, a mere piece of brass (2 Kings 18:4).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(a thing of brass), the name by which the brazen serpent made by Moses in the wilderness, (Numbers 21:9) was worshipped in the time of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18:4) It is evident that our translators by their rendering “and he called it Nehushtan” understood that the subject of the sentence is Hezekiah and that when he destroyed the brazen serpent he gave it the name Nehushtan “a brazen thing” in token of his utter contempt.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
NEHUSH'TAN (brazen thing), a name given by Hezekiah, king of Judah, 2 Kgs 18:4 to the brazen serpent that Moses had set up in the wilderness, Num 21:8, and which had been preserved by the Israelites to that time.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
a trifling thing of brass