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•NEHUSHTAN of copper; a brazen thing a name of contempt given to the serpent Moses had made in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8), and which Hezekiah destroyed because the children of Israel began to regard it as an idol and “burn incense to it.” 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).
•NEIEL dwelling-place of God, a town in the territory of Asher, near its southern border (Joshua 19:27). It has been identified with the ruin Y’anin, near the outlet of the Wady esh Sha-ghur, less than 2 miles north of Kabul, and 16 miles east of Caesarea.
•NEKEB cavern, a town on the boundary of Naphtali (Joshua 19:33). It has with probability, been identified with Seiyadeh, nearly 2 miles east of Bessum, a ruin half way between Tiberias and Mount Tabor.
•NEMUEL day of God. (1.) One of Simeon’s five sons (1 Chronicles 4:24), called also Jemuel (Genesis 46:10). (2.) A Reubenite, a son of Eliab, and brother of Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 26:9).
•NEPHILIM (Genesis 6:4; Numbers 13:33, R.V.), giants, the Hebrew word left untranslated by the Revisers, the name of one of the Canaanitish tribes. The Revisers have, however, translated the Hebrew gibborim, in Genesis 6:4, “mighty men.”
•NEPHTOAH opened, a fountain and a stream issuing from it on the border between Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8, 9; 18:15). It has been identified with ‘Ain Lifta, a spring about 2 1/2 miles north-west of