Huldah the Prophetess חולדה הנביאה
it was to her that they went for a word when the scroll of the Torah was found in the Temple
During the repair of the Temple under Josiah, the high priest Hilkiah found the scroll of the Torah. What was read shook the king so much that he tore his clothes and sent to inquire of the LORD — for himself, for the people and for all Judah.
The delegation was a senior one: the high priest, Shaphan the scribe, courtiers. They went to Huldah the prophetess, wife of Shallum the keeper of the wardrobe — "and she lived in Jerusalem, in the Second Quarter."
Her answer came in two parts and was given without any deference to rank. First: the evil written in the scroll will come upon this place and its inhabitants, "because they have forsaken Me." Second, to the king personally: because your heart was softened and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, you shall be gathered to your fathers in peace, and your eyes shall not see all that evil. And so it was: Josiah fell at Megiddo twenty-two years before the destruction.
The Talmud (Megillah 14a–14b) lists seven prophetesses of Israel: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther. It also asks why they went to her rather than to Jeremiah, who was prophesying in those same years. Two answers are given: women are more compassionate — and, in Rabbi Yochanan's view, Jeremiah was away from the city at the time.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim II 22:14 — Chulda, wife of Shalum, living in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem
- Melachim II 22:15–20 — the sentence on the place and the promise that the king will die in peace
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Megillah 14a–14b — the seven prophetesses of Israel; why they went to Chulda and not to Yirmeyahu
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.