Huldah
(2 Kings, 2 Chronicles 34: 22: 22-28 )
(C3349-3419, 655-585 BC)
Her name comes from Hebrew hul ´which translates as "ferret".
Huldah resided in the "second quarter" of Jerusalem, known as "the College", which some assume to be the suburb between the interior and the outer wall of the city, the Acre. Her husband was the “keeper of the wardrobe” of the Temple.
Huldah was one of only three women called "prophetess" in the Old Testament (the others were Miriam and Deborah). Another is named but only for being the wife of a prophet (Isaiah 8: 3).
Huldah appears in the Bible only on one occasion, but evidently was already known as prophetess of the Lord when she was sought by the high priest Hilkiah and other important men. They came to her on behalf of king Josiah of Judah and the people in order to consult the Lord concerning the content of the book of the Law that had been found when the repair the Temple in Jerusalem was started.
Josiah had been made King when he was only eight years old and reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that neither before nor after him was there a King in Israel who converted to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses, bringing the largest spiritual revival in the history of the people of Israel.
Soon, at the age of sixteen, he began to seek the God of his illustrious ancestor David. At eighteen he determined the repair of the damage to the house of the Lord, and there the high priest found the book of the Law, passed it on Shaphan the scribe and Shaphan read it to the King. When he heard and understood the words of the Law, he tore his robes as a sign of mourning; he realized how much the people of Israel had strayed away from it, and the condemnation to which they were exposed.
The king commanded Hilkiah, and with him three other officers, to consult the Lord for him and the rest of the people, because “great the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
So these four men went to get help from the prophetess Huldah.
It is remarkable that they resorted to Huldah, a woman, to consult the Lord on such an important matter, as Zephaniah and maybe even Jeremiah would already have been there, both bringing severe prophecies from the Lord. No doubt they were directed by God to go to her, in order to receive through her a comforting and stimulating message from the Lord to this king, who had so soon stood out for his loyalty in contrast to his wicked predecessors.
Huldah told them that the Lord, the God of Israel, ordered them to speak to the King that all the curses written in the book that he had read would come upon that place and its inhabitants, because they had forsaken Him and worshipped other gods. But as to king Josiah, he would not see in his days the calamity which would come to that place and its inhabitants, because he had humbled himself and wept before Him. Josiah would go in peace to his grave.
Even knowing that the Lord's judgment was inevitable, Josiah ordered all the men of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets and all the people, from the smallest to the largest, joined him in front of the temple; then all the words of the book of the Covenant that were found in the house of the Lord were read before them.
This done, the King stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow Him and keep His commandments, and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and soul, to fulfil the words of the covenant with God, as written in that book; and all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin agreed to this covenant.
At twenty years of age, with twelve on the throne, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem, removing all the idolatrous abominations that his father had again introduced.
With his strong leadership, Josiah managed to promote the fidelity to the Lord throughout his life. The reform that followed after discovering what was righteous and the obedience to the covenant was even more complete than the first purification of his kingdom.
Josiah made major reforms: he purified the Temple of any shred of idolatry; he killed the priests of the high places over their own altars; he completely destroyed everything connected with idolatry and burned it or ground it to powder. He extended his reforms to the farthest reaches of Israel.
He reinstituted the feast of Passover in accordance with the word of God that had been read, so that it was celebrated as it never had been since the time of the judges; to fulfil the words of the law he abolished mediums, sorcerers, household idols, idols and all abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem.
The reading of the word of God found in the temple led the King to hear the prophecy that the Lord gave through Huldah, and it was vital for the spiritual revival of his people, and the consequent blessings of God, deferring the judgment foreseen in the prophecies that came through the other prophets of his time.
This is a lesson for our days: only upon repentance of existing negligence, the search and sincere obedience of the teachings contained in the Word of God and communion with Him can we expect a spiritual revival of His people.
R David Jones