Huldah ( he, חֻלְדָּה ''Ḥuldā'') was a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the ...

mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Law during renovations at

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by t ...

, on the order of King

Josiah Josiah ( or ) or Yoshiyahu; la, Iosias was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE) who, according to the Hebrew Bible, instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Josiah is credited by most biblical ...

, Hilkiah together with Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah approach her to seek the

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...

's opinion. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath (also called Tikvah), son of Harhas (also called Hasrah), keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, in the Second District or Second Quarter. The

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

of the Bible calls this quarter "the college", and the

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The ''NIV'' was created as a modern translation, by Bible scholars using the earliest a ...

calls it "the new quarter". According to Rabbinic interpretation, Huldah and Deborah were the principal professed woman prophets in the

Nevi'im Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the '' Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim ...

(Prophets) portion of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

and an unnamed prophetess is mentioned in Isaiah. "Huldah" derives from the Hebrew

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), ...

חלד, meaning to abide or to continue. The Huldah Gates in the Southern Wall of the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compou ...

are named for her.

Hershel Shanks Hershel Shanks (March 8, 1930 – February 5, 2021) was an American lawyer and amateur biblical archaeologist. He was the founder and long-time editor of the ''Biblical Archaeology Review''. Life and career Shanks was born in Sharon, Pennsylvani ...

, ''Jerusalem an Archaeological Biography''. Random House, 1995, p. 143. Hulda tomb

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In the Bible

The account in 2 Kings 22 recounts the consulting of Huldah as follows: After authenticating the book and prophesying a future of destruction for failure to follow it, Huldah concludes by reassuring King

that due to his piety, God has heard his prayer and "thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace, neither shall thy eyes see all the evil which I shall bring upon this place". Huldah's prophetic oracle identifies the words the King of Judah heard (2 Kings 22:18) with what

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he po ...

had spoken (2 Kings 22:19). According to William E. Phipps, Huldah is the first person to declare certain writings to be Holy Scripture. Huldah appears in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' d. Friedmann, p. 129. Huldah was not only a prophet but taught publicly in the school (

Targum A targum ( arc, תרגום 'interpretation, translation, version') was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ''Tanakh'') that a professional translator ( ''mǝturgǝmān'') would give in the common language of the ...

to ), according to some teaching, especially the oral doctrine.

Burial site

Two conflicting traditions exist regarding the final resting place of Huldah. The

Tosefta The Tosefta ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תוספתא "supplement, addition") is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah. Overview In many ways, the Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah ( ...

records Huldah's burial site as between the walls of Jerusalem. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, a second tradition developed identifying Huldah's burial site with a cave carved out of the rock beneath a mosque on the Mount of Olives. (See: Chapel of the Ascension, Jerusalem) The cave is considered holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

References

"Huldah", ''The Jewish Encyclopedia''
(article in 1903 public domain ''Jewish Encyclopedia'').

In the Bible

Burial site

References

Further reading