Just as the image had saved Benei Yisrael centuries earlier from deadly venom, the people may have been tempted to attribute to it the power to rescue them from the deadly “snake” that threatened them now – the Assyrian Empire. Particularly during this time of desperation, the “nechash ha-nechoshet” could have likely become – and apparently did become – a source of false hopes, a kind of magical charm that the people turned to for help.