Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Huldah: Judge, Teacher, and Warrior-Prophetess

Part One:

A King Consults Huldah

Damien F. Mackey

“Most biblical commentators are puzzled that King Josiah chose Huldah to read and interpret the newly found scroll since the prophets Jeremiah and Zephaniah were both active at the time, Jeremiah being the more prominent of the two male prophets. Traditional commentators reason, the male prophets have books included in the canon but Huldah doesn’t. Therefore, it is assumed, she must have not been as renowned as the men”.

Robin Cohn

Introduction

We read in two virtually identical accounts, in 2 Kings 22:14-20 and Chronicles 34:11-28, about the consultation of the prophetess Huldah in relation to the discovery of a scroll of the Book of the Law uncovered during a repairing of the Temple in the time of King Josiah.

Here is the narrative of it from 2 Kings 22:14-20:

So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.

And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:

Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard;

Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.

Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

That King Josiah would send five of his top officials to consult Huldah the prophetess is a testimony to her greatness and her oracular importance.

Bobby Valentine has not missed this point in his fine article, “Huldah Who? The Forgotten Ministry of a Lady Prophet”: http://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2006/06/27/huldah-who-the-forgotten-ministry-of-a-lady-prophet/

In response to the discovery of the “book of the Law” Josiah is alarmed. But he is not foolhardy. He needs to know if this work is authentic . . . If it is “true.” What Josiah does next fits well with what we know from Assyrian parallels of Esarhaddon and Nabonidus. When the king receives an oracle or an omen he would “double-check” it with another “god.” Josiah has just received bad news (an omen!) and wants to know if it is really the word of the Lord. So he “double-checks” so to speak with the Prophet Huldah.

So Josiah sends five men to “inquire of Yahweh.” Not just any men but some of the, if not the, most important men in the nation. It might pay to reflect on who these men are for just a moment:

1) Hilkiah the High Priest. The highest spiritual leader in the country.

2) Ahikam son of Shaphan. The Shaphan family is important in Judah. Ahikam is father of Gedaliah who becomes governor (2 Kgs 25.22)

3) Abdon (nothing known of him)

4) Shaphan the Secretary. He is basically the secretary of state or chief of staff for the king.

5) Asiah the king’s attendant.

These men are important in ancient Judah both theologically and politically. We should not miss this fact. ….

[End of quote]

After learning of the scroll, Josiah requested the prophetess Huldah to verify that it was the word of God.

What?

Why choose Huldah, who appears to be otherwise unknown in the Scriptures?

And why a woman? Why not one of the male prophets?

Robin Cohn has written on this, in “Rabbi Huldah” (http://robincohn.net/rabbi-huldah/):

Most biblical commentators are puzzled that King Josiah chose Huldah to read and interpret the newly found scroll since the prophets Jeremiah and Zephaniah were both active at the time, Jeremiah being the more prominent of the two male prophets. Traditional commentators reason, the male prophets have books included in the canon but Huldah doesn’t. Therefore, it is assumed, she must have not been as renowned as the men. ….

Bobby Valentine goes even further, referring to St. Paul’s sanction against women (op. cit.):

….

Where to Begin?

I have long been fascinated by the enigmatic figure of Huldah. I discovered Huldah in 1988 in an “OT” Survey class reading through the Bible. We never actually discussed her and I am not sure we could have done so. But I never forgot her. She has been a poltergeist floating in my mind for nearly 20 years!
Here was this woman placing a stamp of authenticity on Scripture, interpreting it and exercising authority over men . . . all at the same time! I did not know what to do with her. Since then I have been involved in many discussions regarding women in Scripture. Invariably I am told a woman never exercised authority over men with God’s approval because Paul forbade it. I then ask, “What about Huldah?”

The response is almost (without exception) “Huldah Who?”

This article from Patheos also discusses prophetess Huldah in relation to the rðle of women (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithpromotingrumor/2014/04/female-voice-and-the-prophetess-huldah/):

Female Voice and the Prophetess Huldah

April 11, 2014 ….

There has been a lot of talk lately about gender equality and whether women have real voices in the church vis a vis the all male priesthood. Of course, the standard position of church leaders is that women are equally valued and that their perspectives are given full and appropriate consideration given the divinely ordained channels of revelation to the regularly constituted authorities. But somehow this rhetoric that “women are equally valued and listened to” has not been able to allay the growing perception and opinion of many that women are unequal to men at both institutional and theological levels in [significant] ways.

So because of my interest in the Old Testament, I thought of another way of testing the church’s rhetoric about the place of women in the church. If the church claims that it values the voices and contributions of women on a par with men, how well does the church listen to the few voices of women that are already found in scripture and enjoy the authoritative seal of belonging to the standard works? Are THEY given full and appropriate consideration in our scriptural and doctrinal discussions? Admittedly, there are not many women figures in scripture and their roles are generally not as substantial as other male characters. But how we deal with these women and to what degree we remember their actions and contributions to scriptural history may tell us something about the place of women in our collective ecclesiastical consciousness.

A great example to consider is the prophetess Huldah. Do our Sunday School and church educational lessons do much remembering and memorializing of this key biblical figure? I recently watched the high quality film produced for church education in 2011 about Josiah and the Book of the Law and to my amazement the presentation of the story completely skips over the episode of Josiah’s consultation with Huldah. Most all of the major pieces of II Kings 22-23 are present, including Josiah’s childhood, the discovery of the scroll by Hilkiah, its delivery by Shaphan the scribe to the king, the idolatrous practices of the people of Judah under previous kings, Josiah’s repentance and institution of reform, and his death at Megiddo by the hands of Pharaoh Necho. But Huldah is nowhere to be found.

Why is this? What motivated completely removing Huldah the prophetess from the LDS redacted narrative of Josiah’s reforms? She is, after all, a critically important figure in the account and has more speech than any other character aside from Josiah in II Kings 22-23. When Josiah realizes that the people have gone astray after other gods and not followed the laws of the new found scroll of Torah, he instructs his servants to seek an oracle from Yahweh so that perhaps Yahweh’s anger would be averted. These servants then go to visit Huldah and she delivers a lengthy oracle that confirms the validity of the scroll of Torah, underscores Yahweh’s displeasure with the people, and promises Josiah that he will be blessed to die before Yahweh’s wrath breaks out in full (22:15-20).

One of the interesting things about Huldah’s oracle is how much it emphasizes that she is a direct representative of Yahweh. Uniquely, the prophetic introduction formula is repeated three times (“thus says the Lord,” vv. 15, 16, 18) and she speaks in first person as though the identification between her and the deity was seamless. In the broader Deuteronomistic narrative, Huldah is about as authoritative as it gets. ….

[End of quote]

That Huldah and her prophetic words can by no means be brushed aside, but must be taken very seriously indeed, is fully apparent from Bobby Valentine’s explanation of the structural significance of the Huldah narrative, a chiasm which “places [Huldah’s] work as the theological and structural center of the Josiah narrative”:

Setting of the Huldah Narrative

Huldah is extremely important to the history known as Joshua-Samuel-Kings and also Chronicles. Most of the names we think of when we hear the word “prophet” are not even mentioned by either of these histories. Jonah and Isaiah (“writing prophets”) are mentioned in Kings. Jeremiah is not, to my knowledge mentioned at all. In Chronicles, Isaiah is mentioned as is Jeremiah mentioned briefly as the author of a lament over Josiah (2 C 35.25) and in 2 C 36. 12, 21. He is never mentioned in connection with Josiah’s reform . . . But Huldah is given considerable space (comparatively) by both Kings and Chronicles.

As we shall see the Huldah narrative is central not only to the Josiah episode but to the entire structure of Chronicles (where I will spend most of my time). Here is a structural outline that highlights what I mean:

A. Formulaic Introduction (34.1-2)
B. Cultic Purification of Judah & Jerusalem (34.3-5)
C. Cultic Purification of the North (34.6-7)
D. Discovery of the Book (34.8-18)
E. Prophecy of Huldah (34.19-32)
D’ Implementation of the Book (34.29-32)
C’ Cultic Purification of the North (34.33)
B’ Celebration of the Passover (35.1-19)
A’ Extended Formulaic Conclusion (35.20-36.1)

This structure, known as a chiasm (where the structure of the work forms a mirror), places [Huldah’s] work as the theological and structural center of the Josiah narrative. It stresses the authority of the prophetic word and scripture. The king and the people stand under the prophetic word.

Her status and her character

“Young Josiah had eminent teachers: Hilkiah, the kohen gadol (he was the great-grandfather of Ezra the Scribe); the prophet Jeremiah; Shafan the scribe, and his son Ahikam; as well as Shallum and his wife, Huldah, who took care of him in his early childhood”.

Nissan Mindel

“The greatest character among the women thus far mentioned (in the OT) is Huldah the prophetess, residing in the college in Jerusalem”.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Mentor of a King?

Whilst the Huldah narratives in 2 Kings 22:14-20 and Chronicles 34:11-28 do not relate specifically that Huldah was King Josiah of Judah’s preferred choice for consultation when the Book of the Law had been discovered, it is she to whom the king’s five chief ministers will unhesitatingly turn, as Bobby Valentine has noted (“Huldah Who? The Forgotten Ministry of a Lady Prophet”: http://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2006/06/27/huldah-who-the-forgotten-ministry-of-a-lady-prophet/):

When Josiah was in the midst of a great spiritual and moral crises, Huldah is the single person to whom he turned. We do not know if Josiah told these men to go to Huldah but that is what they did. The King wanted answers and these five very important men went directly and naturally, apparently, to Huldah!

Given our history, and disposition, one is disposed to ask “why Huldah?” The question is even more important when we realize that there were male prophets active at this time. Most “famously” would be Jeremiah. But Zephaniah, Nahum are also active prophets at this time ….

[End of quote]

But it becomes apparent from Huldah’s immediate response to these ministers that she understood them to have been sent to her by the king (22:15). There is the suggestion that Huldah and her husband, Shallum, may in fact have been mentors of the young Josiah, in which case he would quite naturally have opted for Huldah to be consulted. For instance, we read at: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112503/jewish/Huldah-the-Prophetess.htm

Huldah the Prophetess

By Nissan Mindel

Published and copyrighted by Kehot Publication Society

…. Huldah’s husband, Shallum, had a prominent position in the royal court. He was the keeper of the king’s wardrobe, in charge of the king’s robes and clothes for all occasions. He was also one of the king’s instructors when Josiah was still a child. Josiah was only eight years old when he inherited the crown from his father, Amon. His father, who had turned to idolatry, was murdered in a plot by his palace servants after he had ruled for two years.

Young Josiah had eminent teachers: Hilkiah, the kohen gadol (he was the great-grandfather of Ezra the Scribe); the prophet Jeremiah; Shafan the scribe, and his son Ahikam; as well as Shallum and his wife, Huldah, who took care of him in his early childhood. Under their teaching and influence Josiah developed into a G‑d-fearing person. He did not follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather (King Manasseh), who worshipped idols and encouraged idolatry in the kingdom of Judah. Rather did he follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather Hezekiah, who was a G‑d-fearing, Torah-loving king. At the age of sixteen years Josiah grasped the reins of his kingdom firmly in his hands, and began to introduce changes in the spiritual life of his people which brought a new era into the land. For he steered the people toward the old spirit of fear of G‑d and devotion to His Torah and Mitzvot. ….

[End of quote]

Despite her undoubted greatness, though -

Huldah is one of the seven women prophets of Israel enumerated by the Rabbis: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther (BT Megillah 14a); she is also mentioned among the twenty-three truly upright and righteous women who came forth from Israel (Midrash Tadshe, Ozar ha-Midrashim [Eisenstein], p. 474).

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/huldah-prophet-midrash-and-aggadah

- Huldah is largely an obscure figure, very much unknown and even - as we read in Part One - quite forgotten. As is her husband, Shallum, whose reputation far surpasses the facts known about him. It is not certain, for instance, that Shallum, as said above, “had a prominent position in the royal court. He was the keeper of the king’s wardrobe …”.

This description could simply be referring to Shallum’s ancestor, Harhas (2 Kings 22:14): “Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe” (חַרְחַס שֹׁמֵר הַבְּגָדִים)

Moreover, the traditions about Shallum and Huldah may be muddled. Tamar Kadari (“enyclopedia” article above) writes of a certain fusing of two traditions about Huldah and her husband:

Huldah was descended from Joshua son of Nun, as is alluded in II Kings 22:14, according to which she was “the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas”; and Jud. 2:9 states that Joshua was buried “at Timnath-heres” (BT Megillah 14a). Another tradition maintains that Huldah was one of the eight prophets and priests, including Jeremiah, who were descended from the harlot Rahab. This is derived from her identification as “the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah,” combined with the account of Rahab’s actions in Josh. 2:18: “you tie this length [tikvat] of crimson cord” (Sifrei on Numbers, 78). In an attempt to resolve these two traditions, the Talmud suggests that Rahab converted and became Joshua’s wife, so that Hulda is a decendent both of Rahab and of Joshua (Megillah, loc. cit.). ….

[End of quote]

Whether or not Huldah’s descent from the harlot Rahab is accurate, I have suggested in:

Bible Critics Can Overstate Idea of 'Enlightened Pagan'

https://www.academia.edu/26423097/Bible_Critics_Can_Overstate_Idea_of_Enlightened_Pagan

(this article heavily based upon the research of others) that the harlot of the Book of Joshua may well have been a person different from the woman of similar name in Matthew’s genealogy of “Jesus the Messiahthe son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:5).

Huldah’s husband Shallum has a sublime reputation attached to him according to Jewish tradition, including even a purported resurrection from the dead. Tamar Kadari again:

The midrash relates that Huldah was gifted with ruah ha-kodesh (the spirit of divine inspiration) by merit of her husband Shallum son of Tikvah, who was one of the outstanding individuals of his generation and who engaged in acts of kindness every day. He would sit at the entrance to the city and would revive any new arrival by giving him drink from a goatskin of water. According to the Rabbis, Shallum son of Tikvah is “the man” of whom II Kings 13:20–21 speaks. After Shallum’s death, according to the midrash, all Israel sought to repay him for his kindnesses and accompanied him to his grave. When they came there, they saw the legions of Moab, and they cast Shallum into the tomb of Elisha. Upon coming into contact with the latter’s bones, Shallum immediately came back to life. Afterwards a son was born to Huldah and Shallum, named Hanamel, who is Hanamel the son of Jeremiah’s uncle Shallum who features in Jer. 32:7 (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer [ed. Higger], chap. 32). ….

[End of quote]

Far more convincing, I think, are the Jewish traditions according to which Huldah was a teacher in an Academy. According to: http://www.womeninthescriptures.com/2008/09/huldah.html

She dwelt in the college, also known as the "Mishneh" or "second section" of Jerusalem. This is a geographical suburb of Jerusalem between the inner and outer wall;

….
She was literate. Which would have been an extraordinary thing for a woman at that time, not even the King was literate;
The king sent the high priest Hilkiah, the scribe Shaphan, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Asaiah, the King's servant to seek her wisdom concerning the book of the law that was found in the temple;
She verified that the scrolls were the word of God, and that their prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem would come to pass (which they do 35 years later), but says that because King Josiah had a "tender heart" and had humbled himself before God, he would not be alive to see the destruction;
She was the first to declare scripture to be holy. Up until this time written words had not been declared to be the word of God;
She is the last (recorded) woman prophet before Judah falls to the Babylonians;

Mishneh (the area where she lived) means " a repetition" in Hebrew, and it is thought that this would have been a place where the oral tradition was preserved and taught;
According to Jewish tradition she had a school in Jerusalem where she taught the oral tradition ….

[End of quote]

Whilst her literacy was indeed a notable thing for the time, it is far from certain, as said above, that “not even the King was literate …”, especially if he had been mentored by Huldah herself.

Tamar Kadari reinforces the view of Huldah as a highly educated teacher:

II Kings 22:14 has Huldah “living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh,” which the Aramaic Targum renders as “study hall,” i.e., academy, a place of Torah. Another view is that she taught the Oral Law (= the Mishnah) to the elders of the generation. According to another tradition, she would preach in public and expound all the subjects mentioned twice in the Torah, and revealed the punishments for those who act counter to the allusions and hidden things in the Torah. Huldah’s chamber, close to the Gazit Chamber, was open to the outside and closed in the direction of the Sanhedrin, out of modesty (see the midrashic traditions cited in Rashi’s commentary on II Kings loc. cit; and on II Chron. 34:22).

These traditions might possibly be connected with the Huldah Gates on the Temple Mount. The Tannaim assert that there were five gates to the Mount, two of which, known as the Huldah Gates, were the southern entrance to the Temple Mount (M Middot 1:3). The Holy One, blessed be He, took an oath that the Western Wall, the Priest’s Gate and the Huldah Gates would never be destroyed, until He restored them to their former glory (Cant. Rabbah 2:9:4).

[End of quote]

A straight-shooting character

One of the stand-out features of Huldah’s response to King Josiah’s envoys, as I have thought, is to be found in her very first utterance to the ministers (2 Kings 22:15): ‘Say to the man who sent you to me …’. Such blunt reference to a king! Consequently (Tamar Kadari again):

The Rabbis charge Huldah with acting arrogantly when she told King Josiah’s emissaries (II Kings 22:15): “Say to the man who sent you to me”; she should have honored the king and said to his representatives, “Say to the king.” Because of her haughty deportment, she was given a denigratory name, “huldah,” meaning “weasel” (even the Aramaic translation of her name—karkushta—sounds ugly) (BT Megillah 14b).

Though such language on the part of the prophetess is admittedly quite unexpected, a person of her wisdom and prudence is hardly likely to have indulged in a rash vocal outburst.

If Huldah had been mentor to the king as a young lad, then a certain degree of familiarity and casualness might easily be allowed for.

Plus, given her status in the kingdom, Huldah may have been at this point in time, an elderly lady, having seen kings come and go, including the wicked Manasseh. Thus, whilst some might ask: “Huldah Who?”, she, as an aged lady, may well have murmured, in her mind: “King Who?”

I conclude this article with more from Bobby Valentine in praise of Huldah the Great (op. cit.):

So why her? One scholar opines, “It is clear that Huldah was a major cult official, and her reputation in her own time probably was greater than Jeremiah” (John Otwell, And Sarah Laughed: The Status of Women in the OT, p. 158). I think in light of Huldah’s place in the narrative of both Kings and Chronicles and the relative silence regarding Jeremiah and other prophets that Otwell is probably correct in his opinion.

After the longest “introduction” given to a prophet in Chronicles (Hicks, p. 296) we hear the word of God flow from the lips of a female prophet. (READ 34.23-28).
Huldah “authorizes” the Book. She places her stamp of approval on the content as truly from the Lord. For the first time in history (that is recorded) we read of a writing being declared to be scripture . . . And a woman did it! As another has written, “The authority to pass judgment on this initial entry into the canon was given to a woman. At the beginning of the Bible we find Huldah; in her we discover the first scripture authority. . . How could we have lost sight of her all these years” (Swidler, p. 1783).

Huldah's authority is unquestioned by the king or his men. I have to conclude that she likewise had the authority to declare the "book" to be a fraud. If she would have declared it to be a hoax I do believe that Josiah would have believed her. But her authority is what gave the book credibility and power. But she did more than authenticate the book.
Josiah had placed the burden of the guilt of Judah in the past (v.21, “because of our fathers”), Huldah places the burden in the present (v.25, ‘they have forsaken me”). Please note that Huldah did not only place her stamp of approval on the book brought by the High Priest and his entourage. She became its interpreter. She set its announcement of doom in Judah’s contemporary condition. In fact I believe there are three implicit claims made by Huldah . . . And endorsed by the inspired authors of Kings and Chronicles. These claims are in “authorization movements”:

1) Huldah began as an authoritative person, one who made a claim, recognized by the king, the high priest and the secretary of state as a legitimate claim, to speak for the Lord God of Israel.

2) Regarding the text she claimed the authority to declare it worthy of obedience and representative of the will of God in the present day (of Judah)

3) She judged the validity of the text vis-à-vis history by interpreting it in light of the present condition.

These are no small claims but these are in fact what the Chronicler describes Josiah and the People of God giving her . . . And he does himself.

By way of just passing notice does not Esther do the same in Esther 9.29, 32?

Huldah the Female Prophet of God did the following things: she declared this book to be scripture, she interpreted it and applied it for and to both men and the nation of Israel as a whole.

….
What is Huldah’s legacy? Does she have one? Yes and No! If her legacy was great in the modern church I would not have titled my presentation “Huldah Who? The Forgotten Story of a Female Prophet.”

But it has not always been so. She has been an inspiration to both men and women of God through the centuries beginning with our biblical historians. They did not want her forgotten . . . Historians are selective in what they can place in a work and they made sure she was included. That says a lot, I believe. If we had only Kgs we would never even know Jeremiah or Amos existed . . . But we would know of Huldah!

The early church recognized her greatness (along with other women of God) in the prayer for the ordination of a deaconess in the Apostolic Constitutions (Fourth Century A.D.):

“O eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of Woman, who filled Miriam, Anna, Deborah and Huldah with the Spirit . . . Look upon your servant who is chosen for the ministry and grant her your Holy Spirit.”

….

Elizabeth Cady Stanton defended her work on behalf of women’s rights by appealing to Huldah. In her mind Huldah was one of the greatest of all God‘s servants:
“The greatest character among the women thus far mentioned (in the OT) is Huldah the prophetess, residing in the college in Jerusalem . . . Her wisdom and insight were well known to Josiah the king; and when the wise men came to him with the ‘Book of the Law,’ to learn what was written therein, Josiah ordered them to take it to Huldah, as neither the wise men nor Josiah himself could interpret its contents . . .

Final Thoughts

Huldah is an incredible woman of God. She was called by God to be a prophet. She had a great reputation in ancient Israel. She did in fact exercise authority by the very nature of her ministry. She is the first person to declare a text scripture but she also interpreted and applied it to her day. She stands at the very heart of the Josiah narrative and in fact his reform movement was the result of her prophetic work. But the Chronicler also uses her to articulate one the central motifs of his entire work . . . I do not have all the answers to the tough questions regarding women, or even, men in God’s church. But I do know this that we need to deal with all of God’s word and we need to deal with it honestly. We need to let Huldah challenge our notions. It is simply not the case that a woman has never exercised authority over men with God’s approval. Huldah did that . . . And much more. Must Huldah remain “Huldah Who?” Can we not be like Josiah and Hilkiah and learn from her?

….

“Keeper of the Wardrobe”

“… the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah,

the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe”.

2 Kings 22:14

“Keeper of the Wardrobe” may have been a most prestigious position of honour somewhat along the lines of what P. Dorman (in The Monuments of Senenmut, Kegan Paul, London, 1988), but more especially J. Berlandini-Grenier (in “Senenmout, stoliste royal, sur une statue-cube avec Neferoure”, B1FAO 76, 1976), have suggested for Senenmut in Hatshepsut’s Egypt, as referred to in my article:

Solomon and Sheba

https://www.academia.edu/3660164/Solomon_and_Sheba

According to Dorman, Senenmut was present at Hatshepsut’s coronation and played a major rôle there [54]. On one statue [55] he is given some unique titles, which Berlandini-Grenier [56] identifies with the official responsible for the ritual clothing of the Queen ‘the stolist of Horus in privacy’, ‘keeper of the diadem in adorning the king’ and ‘he who covers the double crown with red linen’. Winlock was startled that Senenmut had held so many unique offices in Egypt, including ‘more intimate ones like those of the great nobles of France who were honored in being allowed to assist in the most intimate details of the royal toilet at the king’s levees’ [57]. The rarity of the stolist titles suggested to Dorman [58] ‘a one-time exercise of Senenmut’s function of stolist and that prosopographical conclusions might be drawn’, i.e., he had participated in Hatshepsut’s coronation. ….

[End of quote]

Confusingly, the Septuagint translation renders Huldah [Olda], not as the wife of Shallum, but as his “mother” (4 Kings 22:14): “So Hilkiah {gr.Chelcias} the priest went, and Ahikam {gr.Achicam}, and Achobor, and Shaphan {gr.Sapphan}, and Asaias, to Olda the prophetess, the mother of Shallum {gr.Sellem} the son of Thecuan son of Aras, keeper of the robes; and she dwelt in Jerusalem in Masena; and they spoke to her”.

In the Greek:

και επορευθη χελκιας ο ιερευς και αχικαμ και αχοβωρ και σαφφαν και ασαιας προς ολδαν την προφητιν γυναικα σελλημ υιου θεκουε υιου αραας του ιματιοφυλακος και αυτη κατωκει εν ιερουσαλημ εν τη μασενα και ελαλησαν προς αυτην

But the Greek word here, γυναικα, is normally translated as “wife”, “spouse”, “woman”.

Her prophetical accuracy

“While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo”.

2 Kings 23:29

But had not Huldah promised King Josiah that he would die in peace?

Having initially referred to the king rather indifferently as “the man” (22:15) - refer back to Part Two - Huldah will now more respectfully entitle him (vv. 18-20):

‘Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curseand be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place’.’

Was Huldah, then - despite my previous acclamations of her - a false prophet?

Emphatically yes, according to this savage critique of her by Dr. Mike Bagwell (http://drmikebagwell.org/Web%20Pages/Old%20Testament/2nd%20Chronicles%2034,%20Josiah%20and%20Huldah.html):

King Josiah needed some help. A Scroll of the Law of Moses had been found in the Temple, having been misplaced there for some time.

Once read, that divinely inspired Scripture brought a host of questions to the Monarch's mind.

He needed someone to interpret and explain the Text!

Part of it was ever so clear! God judges sin!

Part needed explanation.

Having been instructed to "go and enquire of the Lord concerning the words of the newly-found Book," a group of the King's advisors sought a Prophet of God.

One was in residence.

Living in the city of Jerusalem with her husband, Huldah was located. As to why Jeremiah the great Prophet of God was not sought, the Bible is silent. Apparently Josiah did not care who interpreted the Bible, anyone qualified.

Big mistake!

Bear in mind this fact. No where in all the Word of God do we find a woman prophet correctly and accurately predicting the things of God. Or for that matter, even proclaiming boldly and precisely God's perfect Will!

Truthfully, only five ladies in the Old Testament ever bore that title, even with its wide latitude of meaning. Miriam sang and was called a prophetess, hardly a Preacher of the Word! Deborah was a Judge, but in Hebrews 11 she got no credit for her exploits! And after this Huldah is mentioned, a prophetess named Noadiah opposed and hindered the work of godly Nehemiah. Lastly, Isaiah "nicknamed" his wife the prophetess!

There's not a real Preacher among them all. It is not God's Way to use women, kind and sweet and intelligent and talented as they are, to be spiritual leaders! God does not call women to pastor Churches or become Evangelists! One of the very requirements for serving the Lord in Christian ministry, according to the Apostle Paul in 1st Timothy 3:2, is to be "the husband of one wife." That surely establishes the sexual status of a Preacher!

I have said these things to show the lack of foundation, the paucity of wisdom, these emissaries of King Josiah exhibited.

They went to the wrong Preacher!

And here is part of what she said, the first sentence anyway. "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me ...."

Yes, she uses the prophet formula that real Prophets utter! "Thus saith the Lord!" I found that exact string of words 415 times in the Bible! While Huldah might have thought God sent all her words, that is not the case! What God says is without mistake, always! Huldah erred in her prophecy. Part of it was critically untrue, mortally so!

And if she spoke words, claiming them to be from God, while she herself composed the message, she is worse than mistaken! She then is a liar! A deceiver!

Either way, she is a false prophet! Make that false prophetess! Her message contained inaccuracies.

Then notice in today's Verse what she calls the King! "And she answered them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me." That's all of 2nd Chronicles 34:23.

He's just a "man" to her!

Feminists never respect men!

[End of quote]

Professor Claude Mariottini has provided a far more sensible discussion of the two prophetic utterances of Huldah concerning, firstly the kingdom of Judah, and then the king himself (https://claudemariottini.com/2013/09/17/huldahs-oracle/):

Huldah’s Oracle

…. Huldah’s oracle is significant because she is the only woman prophet who proclaimed a message about future events. She begins her speech, like the other male prophets, claiming that her words were the words of God: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel.” This expression is the messenger formula that was used by the Old Testament prophets to introduce their oracles. As a prophet, Huldah saw herself as a messenger of God set apart to speak in God’s name.

The reason the prophets claimed to speak on behalf of God was that they had a deep conviction that they were called by God to speak God’s word to the people. The prophets received God’s word in many different ways. Some prophets received God’s word through visions and dreams. Others had an intense emotional experience in which they heard God speaking to them.

Although the text does not say how Huldah received her message, her oracle shows that she had an intimate relationship with God and knew that God had a purpose for his people and that he cared enough that he wanted to communicate his will through her. The way by which a prophet became aware of God’s presence or the way a prophet became aware of God’s word is not as important as the word the prophet received which was to be communicated to the people.

Huldah’s oracle mentions events that would happen in the future. Although many false prophets claimed to speak for God, Huldah spoke concerning what God was about to do to Judah because she knew the character of God, the nature of sin, and the rebellion of the people of Judah. She, as a prophet, proclaimed the judgment of God because of the wickedness of the people and because of their worship of false gods.

As a true prophet of God, Huldah told the king’s servants that the message of the book was indeed authentic and that God’s wrath was set against the people because they had abandoned God and not followed his laws.

Huldah proclaimed that Yahweh was going to bring his judgment upon the people of Judah because of their disobedience to his teachings and because they worshiped other gods. She also proclaimed that because Josiah had humbled himself before Yahweh that he would not see the terrible events that would come upon the nation.

According to Huldah, the judgment that God had in store for Judah could not be averted because of the wickedness of the people. Because of Josiah’s faithfulness, Huldah predicted that the judgment of Judah would not happen until after his death. She also predicted that Josiah would die in peace and be buried in the grave of his ancestors.

In her oracle, Huldah mentioned that Josiah would die in peace: “Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.” However, Josiah died fighting against the army of Neco, king of Egypt.

In his attempt at stopping Egypt from helping Assyria in its struggle against Babylon, Josiah goes to Megiddo to fight Neco in order to stop him. During the battle Josiah was mortally wounded. His servants brought his body from Megiddo to Jerusalem in the king’s chariot. Josiah was buried in his own tomb as the people lamented his death (2 Kings 23:30).

The Chronicler, in trying to explain how Josiah, a good king who followed the Lord with all his heart, died at a young age, said that Josiah failed to obey the word of God in the mouth of Neco:

Neco sent envoys to him, saying, ‘What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you.’ But Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:21-22).

Josiah did not die according to Huldah’s prophecy, but this does not mean that Huldah was a false prophet. Huldah’s oracle that Josiah would die a peaceful death means that he would not see the manifestation of God’s anger against Judah in his lifetime.

However, what Josiah’s death shows is the beginning of the fulfillment of Huldah’s prophecy. Josiah’s death brought about the events that would culminate with the destruction of the temple and the exile of Judah.

As Baruch Halpern (1998:499) wrote, the death of Josiah was “not as a postponement of Yhwh’s punishment, but rather as its onset. Despite a loyalty to Yhwh comparable only to that demanded by Moses (with all his heart, soul and strained fabric of his being: 2 Kgs xxiii 25), the text takes Josiah’s killing as Yhwh’s affirmation of his intention to reject Jerusalem and the temple by means of exile (xxiii 26-7, 29-30). The consequences were the captivity of Jehoahaz (xxiii 33-4), invasions under Jehoiakim paving the way for an exile promised by Yhwh’s ‘servants, the prophets’ (2 Kgs xxiv 1-4), the deportation of Jehoiachin (xxiv 10-16), and the destruction of the temple and exile of the population under Zedekiah (xxiv 20, xxv 21, 26). Josiah’s death is the milestone marking the start of the road to exile.”

[End of quote]

But Matthew J. Suriano has properly explained the significance of Huldah’s Oracle in relation to the fate of King Josiah, and it by no means marks Huldah as a false prophet. Thus Suriano has written (in The Politics of Dead Kings: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=MfSfzOq):

…. The Death of Josiah and Huldah’s Prophecy

Josiah's sudden and violent death, which comes at the climax of his great reform, has both intrigued and confused interpreters both ancient and modern. …. The political tragedy of this event also appears to contravene the prophetic words addressed to Josiah in 2 Kg 22:15-20. …. This oracle, uttered by an obscure prophetess named Huldah, is also one of the more problematic passages in the Hebrew Bible. …. Josiah’s end at Megiddo certainly does not fit the fate that is read into Huldah’s oracle (to die a natural death in the time of peace), and presents problems for the “prophecy-and-fulfillment” motif that typifies the DtrH. The phrase is packaged in a hybrid form of the two synonymous biblical-phrases for death, “I will gather you unto your fathers [cf. Jdg 2:10] and you will be gathered into your graves in peace (2 Kg 22:20). …. Later in the biblical narrative, Josiah suffers an inglorious end, killed in battle by the Egyptians (2 Kg 23:29-30; 2 Chr 35:24) and his body is brought back to Jerusalem and laid to rest with his fathers. The account of Josiah lacks the standard epilogue (as it is defined in this study); standing in its place is the report of the transportation of Josiah’s body (by chariot) to his royal capital; his burial “in his tomb” (בִּקְבֻרָתוֹ), as well as the emergency installation of his son Jehoahaz on his throne by the “people of the land”.

The interpretive problem with Huldah’s oracle is due to the wording of v. 20a, which includes the phrase “in peace” (בְּשָׁלוֹם) along with poetic language drawn from the biblical idiom “gathered to his people” and the dynastic notice “laid with his fathers”.

The quandary stems, in part, from the idea that these phrases imply a peaceful death. As a result, several biblical commentators often label the oracle of Huldah a prophecy left unfulfilled. The idea that a discordant prophecy remains in the biblical text has contributed to multiple-redaction theories, which postulate that the oracle's core was a pro-Josianic utterance that offered divine endorsement and the promise of a peaceful end. …. Accordingly, the oracle is dissected into two parts: the prediction of destruction (and exile) in vv.16-17, which is a later, exilic/post-exilic appendage to the pre-exilic oracle addressed to the king (vv. 18-20). …. This division is unnecessary, however, because the biblical idioms involved were not intended to predict Josiah’s death [var. have nothing to do with manner of death], but instead indicate inheritance and the preservation of his political patrimony. Indeed, the coherence of the oracle seems interrupted by the direct address of the king in v. 17. … but this proves the point of the prophecy. Despite the ensuing destruction, the king and his line would receive divine forbearance. ….

[End of quote]

What became of Huldah?

We know nothing at all of the fate of Huldah herself, qua Huldah.

Hence Professor Mariottini is quite correct in concluding (op. cit.):

…. Little else is known about Huldah. After giving her oracle to Josiah’s men, Huldah disappears from the pages of Scriptures. She proclaimed her oracle and nothing else is written about her. Her role in the story ends with these words, “They took the message back to the king” (2 Kings 22:20).

Although nothing else is said about Huldah, it is evident that her words had a profound impact on Josiah and provided a prophetical approval to the religious reforms that attempted to bring Judah back to the worship of Yahweh and the elimination of syncretistic elements in the religion of Israel. ….

[End of quote]

However, there must be far more to the impressive Huldah in the Scriptures, I strongly suggest, than is known about her merely under the name, Huldah.

And now, in Part Two, I hope to provide Huldah the prophetess with what is completely lacking to her in 2 Kings 22:14-20 and Chronicles 34:11-28: namely, a beginning and an end.

Part Two:

Former Glory, as Judith

“For the rest of her life [Judith] was honoured throughout the whole country. Many desired to marry her, but she gave herself to no man all the days of her life after her husband Manasseh died and was gathered to his people. She became more and more famous, and grew old in her husband’s house, reaching the age of one hundred five”.

Judith 16:21-23

A reader has asked (11^th April 2017): “Is there, perhaps, a kind of intentional ambiguity in the textual tradition, so that Huldah is a kind of surrogate Queen Mother for Josiah, and a type of the Theotokos?” My response: If Huldah is Judith, as will be argued in this new series, then Huldah the prophetess was most definitely “a type of the Theotokos [Virgin Mary]”:

Judith 13:18-20

‘O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies. Your praisewill never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honour to you, and may He reward you with blessings, because you risked your own life when our nation was brought low, and you averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God’.

This is not the first time that I have considered Huldah as potentially the same woman as Judith.

I had already entertained that possibility in my thesis, as I recalled recently in my article:

The Aftermath of Judith's Victory

https://www.academia.edu/32327933/The_Aftermath_of_Judiths_Victory

…. In search of the older Judith, I had flirted for a time with identifying her as the significant woman, “the prophetess’, Huldah, at the time of King Josiah of Judah, but had then rejected this scenario because I could not see how the two could be properly matched in all aspects. This is what I then wrote:

The only woman of significance who emerges in the Scriptures for this period is the prophetess, Huldah, who was important enough for king Josiah, Hezekiah’s great grandson, to have sent his ambassadors to, in order to ‘inquire of the Lord’, after Josiah had found and read the book of the law (2 Chronicles 34:15, 21, 22). Huldah, however, could not have been Judith, since the husband of the former was apparently still alive, and was likely a Levite (not a Simeonite) (v. 22), and because Huldah “lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter” (v. 22); whereas Judith, as we have read above, lived out her life in Bethulia, perhaps the northern Bethel.

It does not seem, therefore, that Judith, despite her fame, appears in any other part of the Scriptures.

[End of quote]

Later on I would change my mind and would even go so far as to create a blog site dedicated to (as according to the title of this article): “Huldah as Judith in her old age”.

This, too, I eventually abandoned, however, because I could not fully reconcile the biographies of Huldah and Judith.

But, by the time that I had come to write “The Aftermath of Judith’s Victory”, I was again seriously thinking that Huldah-as-Judith was on the cards, and so I left it open as follows:

Huldah does appear to have potential, though, for being an older Judith with regard to name similarity (phonetics, if not meaning); chronology; character; and status. So it might yet be premature to close the book entirely on the possibility of matching the two, Judith and Huldah.

What I was really thinking by now, though, was that Huldah has to be Judith!

‘Henceforth all ages will call me blessed’

Is there any greater woman in the Old Testament than Judith?

The one most like her would probably be Deborah, a Judge and teacher of Israel (Judges 4:5) - who may well be the ancestor of Tobit 1:8: “… we obeyed both the ordinances of the Law of Moses and the exhortations of Deborah the mother of our ancestor Ananiel …” - and a warrior prophetess (particularly if Judith is also the “prophetess” Huldah). Both Deborah (5:1-31) and Judith (16:1-17) would have occasion to intone a great Victory song.

One of the many outstanding characteristics of Judith is her firm resolve. ‘Listen to me’, she will tell the elders of Bethulia, ‘I intend to do something, the memory of which will be handed down to the children of our race from age to age’. Cf. Luke 1:48

And when Judith returns safely to Bethulia with her maid, and with the head of “Holofernes”, the town’s chief, Uzziah, will reinforce this notion of everlasting memory of her (13:19-20): ‘Your praisewill never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honour to you …’.

And Achior, when he is summoned, first faints at the sight of the head of mighty “Holofernes” (who had given him over to be killed), and then “threw himself at Judith’s feet, and did obeisance to her, and said, ‘Blessed are you in every tent of Judah! In every nation those who hear your name will be alarmed’.” (14:6, 7)

Finally, the high priest Joakim and the elders of Jerusalem would arrive at Bethulia “to witness the good things that the Lord had done for Israel, and to see Judith and to wish her well” (15:8). And there they called down everlasting Divine blessing upon Judith (vv. 9-10):

When they met her, they all blessed her with one accord and said to her, ‘You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the great boast of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation! You have done all this with your own hand; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you forever!’ And all the people said, ‘Amen’.

Finally, we read that conclusion in Judith 16 about Judith being honoured for the rest of her long life and her fame increasing. Surely she could never be forgotten down through the ages!

Judith the Obscure

Judith has become, just as Paul wrote of the Christians,

the “unknown whom everybody knows” (2 Corinthians 6:9).

And of Huldah, we have read it being asked: “Huldah who?”

Or, “Why choose Huldah?”

So much, we could say, for Judith’s everlasting fame.

But the key to the situation is to be found, I think, in the qualification made by Uzziah of Bethulia when he proclaimed to Judith (13:19): ‘Your praisewill never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God’. That is to say, Judith will be remembered down through the generations by those who have not neglected and forgotten the works of the Lord.

For more on this, see my article:

"That they might not forget the works of God"

https://www.academia.edu/31392742/_That_they_might_not_forget_the_works_of_God_

The same with the Woman of whom we know Judith to have been a “type”, the “Theotokos”, that is, the Virgin Mary. Utterly forgotten by the general stream of humanity, She is remembered and honoured by “those who fear Him from generation to generation”. Luke 1:50

‘Unknown - yet known by everyone’. ‘Everybody’ knows about the Virgin Mary, but very few actually know Her.

According to saints like Louis Grignion de Montfort, Mary’s greatest desire when on earth was to remain hidden and unknown (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin):

It was through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world.

Because Mary remained hidden during her life she is called by the Holy Spirit and the Church "Alma Mater", Mother hidden and unknown. So great was her humility that she desired nothing more upon earth than to remain unknown to herself and to others, and to be known only to God.

In answer to her prayers to remain hidden, poor and lowly, God was pleased to conceal her from nearly every other human creature in her conception, her birth, her life, her mysteries, her resurrection and assumption. Her own parents did not really know her; and the angels would often ask one another, "Who can she possibly be?", for God had hidden her from them, or if he did reveal anything to them, it was nothing compared with what he withheld.

God the Father willed that she should perform no miracle during her life, at least no public one, although he had given her the power to do so. God the Son willed that she should speak very little although he had imparted his wisdom to her.

Even though Mary was his faithful spouse, God the Holy Spirit willed that his apostles and evangelists should say very little about her and then only as much as was necessary to make Jesus known.

Mary is the supreme masterpiece of Almighty God and he has reserved the knowledge and possession of her for himself. She is the glorious Mother of God the Son who chose to humble and conceal her during her lifetime in order to foster her humility. He called her "Woman" as if she were a stranger, although in his heart he esteemed and loved her above all men and angels. Mary is the sealed fountain and the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit where only he may enter. She is the sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe, not excluding his dwelling above the cherubim and seraphim. No creature, however pure, may enter there without being specially privileged.

[End of quote]

‘Everybody’, too, knows that Judith cut off the head of “Holofernes”, but that is about all that is known of this magnificent woman.

It is not even firmly known whether or not she really existed.

And, if the story of Judith is a true one, scholarly opinions are mixed as to whether the drama occurred during:

the reign of Ashurbanipal (C7th BC); or a
king-less Second Commonwealth phase (C5th BC); or during
the reign of Artaxerxes III ‘Ochus’ (C4th BC); or
the Maccabean era (C2nd BC)

That is, anywhere within a range of about half a millennnium!

In fact, as I see it, Judith belongs to none of these eras, but - Ashurbanipal being the closest - to the time of kings Hezekiah of Judah and Sennacherib of Assyria (c. 700 BC). See e.g. my:

Book of Judith: Confusion of Names

https://www.academia.edu/31636672/Book_of_Judith_Confusion_of_Names

Perfect Chronological Fit

^“In Hezekiah’s fourth year as king (which was the seventh year in the reign of King Hoshea, son of Elah of Israel) King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Samaria, blockaded it, and captured it at the end of three years. Samaria was taken in Hezekiah’s sixth year as king (which was Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel)”.

2 Kings 18:9-10

A possible Timeline for Judith

The (i) Fall of Samaria to the Assyrians is a rock-solid, multi biblico-historical synchronism to be aligned against (ii) the 9^th year of a king of Israel, and (iii) the 6^th year of a king of Judah. It was also (iv) the “beginning” of the reign of Sargon II of Assyria, as he tells us in his Annals, and the (v) 1^st year of Merodach-baladan of Babylon (as calculable from Sargon’s record).

Unfortunately, though, as I pointed out in:

King Hezekiah, Samaria, Assyria, and Edwin Thiele

https://www.academia.edu/8678263/King_Hezekiah_Samaria_Assyria_and_Edwin_Thiele

many scholars have opted to follow the much-esteemed chronological calculations of E. Thiele (The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings), thereby ‘harnessing the biblical data to an uneven team’ (2 Corinthians 6:14) of a seriously faulty neo-Assyrian chronology.

The result of this is a complete annihilation of the above 5-way (i-v) synchronism.

Leaving all that aside, and commencing with the incident of the Fall of Samaria, I should like to propose what I think might be a reasonable chronology for the long life of Judith based upon my view that the drama of the Book of Judith had actually occurred during the reigns of kings Hezekiah of Judah and Sennacherib of Assyria.

The Fall of Samaria is conventionally dated to c. 722 BC. Whilst this is not the date that I would think likely for the incident, it will serve nonetheless as a handy ‘sighter’.

And it may be a reasonable date of approximation for the birth of Judith.

We might not expect the young Judith to have known anything of the reign of the wicked king Ahaz, father of Hezekiah, based on her assertion, and her hope in God’s mercy (8:18-20):

‘We do not worship gods made with human hands. Not one of our clans, tribes, towns, or cities has ever done that, even though our ancestors used to do so. That is why God let their enemies kill them and take everything they had. It was a great defeat! But since we worship no other God but the Lord, we can hope that he will not reject us or any of our people’.

Taking 722 BC, then, as a tentative starting point for Judith, her life would have ended 105 years later (16:24), in approximately 617 BC, late in the 31-year reign of King Josiah of Judah (c. 640-609 BC, conventional dates).

The following chronological estimation will be based on Table 7 of my university thesis:

A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah

and its Background

AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf

(Volume One, p. 393).

Say that Judith was born in 722 BC. She would have been - according to my calculation of the incident as occurring in 703 BC - about 18-19 years of age when she beheaded “Holofernes”. Bagoas, in the Assyrian camp, refers to her at the time as a “girl” (Judith 12:13): ‘Let this pretty girl not hesitate to come to my lord [Holofernes] to be honoured in his presence …’.

That would probably mean that Judith’s husband, Manasseh - who had apparently died about three years before this incident (8:2, 3-4):

Judith’s husband Manasseh, who belonged to the same tribe and clan, had died during the barley harvest. He had suffered a sunstroke while in the fields supervising the farm workers and later died in bed at home in Bethulia. He was buried in the family tomb in the field between Dothan and Balamon.

For three years and four months, Judith had lived as a widow [,]

- would have been born some 25-30 years before 706 BC, approximately at the time of the Syro-Ephraïmic War and the incursions into the region of the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser.

Judith would have been a very old lady in the 18^th year of King Josiah of Judah (c. 622 BC), when Huldah was consulted over the Book of the Law by the king’s chief ministers.

She was by then about 100 years of age (722-622).

That means that Judith would have died 5 years later, in Josiah’s 23^rd year (in c. 617 BC).

If Judith were also Huldah, then one can well accept that a woman of such fame, but also one of such age, might speak rather more casually about the king (2 Kings 22:15): ‘Tell the man who sent you to me …’, than would any other of Josiah’s subjects have dared to.

Conclusion

Chronologically, Huldah is a perfect fit for the heroine Judith without the need for any awkward mathematical tweaking.

Judith-Huldah, dying before the end of the reign of King Josiah, and hence before the advent of the Chaldean incursions into Israel under Nebuchednezzar II, would have been laid to rest peacefully. Thus it could be said (Judith 16:25): “As long as Judith lived, and for many years after her death, no one dared to threaten the people of Israel”.

It is generally thought that we do not know what became of Huldah the prophetess.

“What happened to Huldah, we do not know” (http://www.womeninthebible.net/women-bible-old-new-testaments/huldah/).

But this may be a situation like that of Queen Nefertiti, whose beginning and end is unknown to Egyptologists, unless, that is, she be re-united with her alter ego, Jezebel (at least as according to my historical revision):

The Shattering Fall of Queen Nefertiti. Part One: Nefertiti as Jezebel

https://www.academia.edu/31038511/The_Shattering_Fall_of_Queen_Nefertiti._Part_One_Nefertiti_as_Jezebel

For, just as we well know what fate befell Queen Jezebel, so do we know what happened to Judith (16:24): “When she died in Bethulia at the age of 105, she was buried beside her husband, and the people of Israel mourned her death for seven days”.

Her Wisdom and Courage

“Judith plays out her whole story with the kind of faith described in the Prologue of Job (esp. 1:21 and 2:9). Her faith is like that of Job after his experience of God in the whirlwind (cf. 42:1-6), yet in the story she has no special theophanic experience. We can only imagine what happened on her housetop where she was habitually a woman of regular prayer”.

Toni Craven

Gifted with genius

In Part One I singled out, as “one of the many outstanding characteristics of Judith … her firm resolve”.

The Holy Spirit bestows gifts of Wisdom and Fortitude (courage), and these Judith also had in abundance.

She may have been something of a child prodigy.

Uzziah, the leading man in Bethulia, will attest to Judith’s early wisdom and maturity (Judith 8:28-29): ‘Everything you have said makes good sense, and no one can argue with it. This is not the first time you have shown wisdom. Ever since you were a child, all of us have recognized the soundness and maturity of your judgment’.

Here she is, now a young adult, teaching the elders, one of whom, Uzziah, is - in my opinion -the prophet Isaiah. {"Uzziah", the chief magistrate of Judith's town of "Bethulia", and indeed "prince of the people of Israel" (cf. 6:15 & 13:23 Douay) = the great Isaiah himself}.

And she does so with the same sort of directness that we have found in the case of the aged Huldah.

The young woman, Judith, is furious with the elders for having presumed to second-guess Almighty God. Consider this example of inspired theological utterance by a young woman (8:9-24):

Judith heard how the people were complaining bitterly against Uzziah, now that the water shortage had broken their morale. She learned that in answer to their complaints he had promised to surrender the town to the Assyrians after five days. Judith sent a slave, the woman who managed her business affairs, to invite Uzziah, Chabris, and Charmis, the town officials, to her home.

When the officials arrived, Judith said to them,

‘Please listen to me. You are the leaders of the people of Bethulia, but you were wrong to speak to the people as you did today. You should not have made a solemn promise before God that you would surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to our aid within a few days. What right do you have to put God to the test as you have done today? Who are you to put yourselves in God's place in dealing with human affairs? It is the Lord Almighty that you are putting to the test! Will you never learn? There is no way that you can understand what is in the depths of a human heart or find out what a person is thinking. Yet you dare to read God's mind and interpret his thoughts! How can you claim to understand God, the Creator? No, my friends, you must stop arousing the anger of the Lord our God! If he decides not to come to our aid within five days, he still may rescue us at any time he chooses. Or he may let our enemies destroy us. But you must not lay down conditions for the Lord our God! Do you think that he is like one of us? Do you think you can bargain with him or force him to make a decision? No! Instead, we should ask God for his help and wait patiently for him to rescue us. If he wants to, he will answer our cry for help. We do not worship gods made with human hands. Not one of our clans, tribes, towns, or cities has ever done that, even though our ancestors used to do so. That is why God let their enemies kill them and take everything they had. It was a great defeat! But since we worship no other God but the Lord, we can hope that he will not reject us or any of our people.

If our town is taken by the enemy, the entire region of Judah will then fall, and our Temple in Jerusalem will be looted. And God will make us pay with our lives for allowing the Temple to be defiled. He will hold us responsible for the slaughter and captivity of our people and for the destruction of the land we have inherited. We will be despised and mocked by the people in those nations to which we will be taken as slaves. We are not going to win the favor of our enemies by surrendering to them now. If we do surrender, the Lord our God will see that we are put to shame.

No, my friends, we should set an example for our own people. Not only their lives, but the fate of the Temple and the altar depend on us. The Lord our God is putting us to the test, just as he tested our ancestors, and we should be thankful for that. Remember how he put Abraham and Isaac to the test, and what happened to Jacob while he was working as a shepherd for his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia. God is not testing our loyalty as severely as he did theirs. God is not sending this punishment on us as revenge, but as a warning to us who worship him’.

‘Please listen to me’.

‘What right do you have to put God to the test …?’

‘Who are you to put yourselves in God's place …?’

‘Will you never learn?’

No wonder that the straight-shooting Joan of Arc was referred to as a “second Judith”!

See my:

Judith of Bethulia and Joan of Arc

https://www.academia.edu/8815175/Judith_of_Bethulia_and_Joan_of_Arc

Judith already knows what the mature Job had yet to find out, that God does what He wills, and He is not bound by human judgment: ‘If he decides not to come to our aid within five days, he still may rescue us at any time he chooses. Or he may let our enemies destroy us’.

But she also exercises the virtue of Hope: ‘… since we worship no other God but the Lord, we can hope that he will not reject us or any of our people’.

Toni Craven (Artistry and Faith in the Book of Judith)’, following J. Dancy’s view (Shorter Books of the Apocrypha), that the theology presented in Judith’s words to the Bethulian town officials rivals the theology of the Book of Job, will go on to make this interesting comment (pp. 88-89, n. 45.):

Judith plays out her whole story with the kind of faith described in the Prologue of Job (esp. 1:21 and 2:9). Her faith is like that of Job after his experience of God in the whirlwind (cf. 42:1-6), yet in the story she has no special theophanic experience. We can only imagine what happened on her housetop where she was habitually a woman of regular prayer.

[End of quote]

Not surprising, then, if this woman of ever-increasing fame, praised by priesthood, elders and people alike, should become in her old age (as Huldah) a teacher of an academy and an oracle to be consulted in a time of crisis. She, with her profound knowledge of God, was the rightful one to prophesy on His behalf and to interpret His designs for the people of Judah. (Even over and above the yet well-known prophet Jeremiah).

After all, the people of Israel had Judith-Huldah to thank for single-handedly having saved them from death and captivity at the hands of the massive Assyrian army.

Judith had, under Divine inspiration, conceived a most bold plan. Like Esther, she went forth bravely on behalf of her people, but not, like Esther (4:7) ‘staggering, turning pale and fainting’, but firm and radiant impressing all those who saw her in the camp of the Assyrians (Judith 10:18-23):

There was great commotion in the Assyrian camp as news of Judith's arrival spread from tent to tent. While she stood outside the tent of Holofernes waiting to be presented to him, many Assyrian soldiers came and stood around her. They were greatly impressed by her beauty and wondered what kind of people the Israelites were.

Who can have contempt for people whose women are so beautiful? they asked one another.
We had better kill all the men, or else these Jews will be able to charm the whole world.

Then Holofernes' bodyguard and his personal servants came out and led Judith into the tent. Holofernes was resting on his bed under a mosquito net woven of purple and gold thread and decorated with emeralds and other precious stones. When the men told him that Judith had arrived, he came to the outer part of the tent. Silver lamps were carried ahead of him. When Judith came near him and his servants, they were all astonished at her beauty. She bowed down to the ground before Holofernes, but his servants helped her to her feet.

Judith and her maid were not alone in the camp of the Assyrians.

Apart from Judith’s constant communication with God, through prayer, even as she was about to behead “Holofernes” (13:7): ‘O Lord, God of Israel, give me strength now’, she and her maid had ‘invaded’ the camp of the Assyrians accompanied by an angel (Judith 13:20, Douay): ‘But as the same Lord liveth, his angel hath been my keeper both going hence, and abiding there’. A destroying angel (2 Kings 19:35): “That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!”

Some problems with this view

What had stopped me previously from settling upon an identification of Huldah with Judith were geography and details given regarding Huldah’s husband, which did not seem to be reconcilable with the biographical details relating to Judith and to her husband.

Loose ends

Huldah is, as we have found, most compatible with Judith in many ways – chronologically; temperamentally; directness in speech; wisdom and holiness; sure judgment; oracular gift; courage and boldness; status, fame and reputation.

Even the names look similar in structure: Jehudit/Huldah (HU-D-), if they differ in meaning. Judith (יהודית) means “Jewess”, whilst Huldah (חֻלְדָּה) is said to mean “weasel”.

Most unlikely, though, that a great heroine of Israel would go down with the name Weasel.

Huldah may perhaps be a hypocoristicon of Jehudit (= Judith). Though we have also found that names in the Book of Judith, as we now have it, are not entirely reliable:

Book of Judith: Confusion of Names

https://www.academia.edu/31636672/Book_of_Judith_Confusion_of_Names

Objections to this identification

The specific biographical information about Huldah and her husband as found in, for instance 2 Kings 22:14:

Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter [,]

does appear to present some real problems for an identification of her with Judith.

For one, Judith’s husband was, as we now know, “Manasseh”, not “Shallum”. That, on its own, is not necessarily an insurmountable problem because the Hebrews (Jews) could bear more than the one name.

But Shallum’s occupation as “keeper of the wardrobe” may seem to create a further problem - {presuming that “keeper of the wardrobe” refers to him, as it is often interpreted, and not solely to his ancestor, Harhas} - because Manasseh’s occupation appears to be quite a different one (Judith 8:2-3): “Judith’s husband Manasseh … had died during the barley harvest. He had suffered a sunstroke while in the fields supervising the farm workers and later died in bed at home in Bethulia”. He apparently had been a man of immense wealth, because (v. 7): “[Manasseh] had left [Judith] gold and silver, servants and slaves, livestock and fields”.

Whilst Manasseh would have been long dead by the time that Huldah the prophetess was consulted by the king’s ministers, Shallum was - at least as it could be read - still alive and officiating as “keeper of the wardrobe”.

Again, Judith and Manasseh were Simeonites (Judith 8:1, 2), whereas we might associate “keeper of the wardrobe”, as do some, with one of the Levite tribe. In 2 Kings 10:22 the phrase appears to refer to “vestments”. “Jehu said to him who was over the wardrobe, ‘Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Baal’.”

Finally, it is said that Huldah “lived in Jerusalem”, whereas Judith appears to have been habitually located in her northern town of Bethulia (Judith 16:21, 24): “… Judith went back to Bethulia to live on her own estate. … she lived in the house her husband had left her … she died in Bethulia”.

Considering Geography

A tentative explanation of the geography of Huldah, in relation to Judith.

Bethulia and Jerusalem

The Book of Judith, as we have found, firmly connects its heroine to the town of “Bethulia”.

Of the little that we are told biographically about Huldah, we do learn that (2 Kings 22:14):

“She lived in Jerusalem, in the Mishneh”.

Judith

R. Charles, despite his reference to a common view that Bethulia equates with Bethel, meaning “House of God”, had firmly rejected any suggestion that Judith’s Bethulia might be identified with Jerusalem (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, vol. 1: “Apocrypha”, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, p. 251, n. 6):

Bait(o)uloúa is now generally explained as … Bethel = House of God, a name which might suitably be applied to any town which is to be represented as true to its faith in God, cf. e.g. viii. 20. …. What place then is hidden under this assumed [sic] name? It would be natural to think of Jerusalem … but this is out of the question, since in this verse Joakim wrote from Jerusalem to Bethulia.

Clearly, anyway, the town of Bethulia was situated in the north, close to Dothan (Judith 4:6): “… the towns of Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which face Jezreel Valley near Dothan”. “DOTHAN, now tell Dothan, 42 ms. n. of Jerusalem, 5 ms. s.w. of Jenin on the s. of a beautiful plain but with only a few ruins on a hill”: http://bibleatlas.org/dothan.htm

It is hard to imagine, however, that Judith had been virtually confined to Bethulia for the entire duration of her 105 years. Even the Book of Judith tells of her sojourn in the city of Jerusalem for “three months” following Israel’s victory over the Assyrians (16:18-20):

When the people arrived in Jerusalem, they purified themselves and worshiped God. They presented their burnt offerings, freewill offerings, and gifts. Judith dedicated to God all of Holofernes’ property, which the people had given to her. And as a special offering in fulfillment of a vow, she presented to the Lord the canopy which she had taken from Holofernes’ bed. For three months the people continued to celebrate in front of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Judith stayed there with them.

Moreover, she and her fellow townspeople, and other neighbours, as loyal Yahwists according to Judith’s own testimony (Judith 8:18), would have made the annual trip to Jerusalem – just like the faithful Tobit had (Tobit 1:6): “… fulfilling the Law that binds all Israel perpetually”.

Huldah

She, living in a period of peace during the approximate mid-point (18^th year) of the reign of King Josiah of Judah, would not thus have been forced to move away from her traditional home (Bethulia, for instance) as would be the case later with the Rechabites (Jeremiah 35:10-11):

… we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.’ So we dwell at Jerusalem.

However Huldah, as a gifted teacher of Israel, may have - if she were Judith - frequently made visits to Jerusalem to teach there in the Mishneh (https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/huldah-prophet-midrash-and-aggadah):

… which the Aramaic Targum renders as “study hall,” i.e., academy, a place of Torah. Another view is that she taught the Oral Law (= the Mishnah) to the elders of the generation. According to another tradition, she would preach in public and expound all the subjects mentioned twice in the Torah, and revealed the punishments for those who act counter to the allusions and hidden things in the Torah.

It may be most significant that the Hebrew verb, yoshebet (יֹשֶׁבֶת), which is translated as “lived” in 2 Kings 22:14: “She lived in Jerusalem, in the Mishneh”, is the very same verb and construction used to describe the OT woman she may resemble most, Deborah (Judges 4:5): “And she sat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment”.

וְהִיא יוֹשֶׁבֶת תַּחַת-תֹּמֶר דְּבוֹרָה, בֵּין הָרָמָה וּבֵין בֵּית-אֵל--בְּהַר אֶפְרָיִם; וַיַּעֲלוּ אֵלֶיהָ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לַמִּשְׁפָּט

Perhaps, with this in mind, it is more a case of Huldah’s being in Jerusalem, not so much for living purposes as for Deborah-like sitting purposes, in the sense of Huldah’s ‘sitting to provide judgment for the children of Israel’.

Truly she was, like Deborah, a mother of Israel.

Accounting for the husband

A tentative reconsideration of the biographical details regarding

the husband of Huldah, in relation to Judith and her husband.

Manasseh and Shallum

Whilst Judith’s husband Manasseh (qua Manasseh) is virtually unknown, Shallum, the husband of Huldah, on the other hand, enjoys quite an exalted reputation within Jewish tradition.

We read about this in my:

Huldah Who?

https://www.academia.edu/32357574/Huldah_Who?campaign=upload_email

for example, this excerpt from Nissan Mendel:

Young Josiah had eminent teachers: Hilkiah, the kohen gadol … the prophet Jeremiah; Shafan the scribe, and his son Ahikam; as well as Shallum and his wife, Huldah, who took care of him in his early childhood. ….

[End of quote]

And again, this time from Tamar Kadari:

[End of quote]

But all that we have to go on for Shallum, biblically speaking, is this slender piece of information: “… Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe …”.

There is nothing in this verse, no verb, to underline that Shallum was still alive in this momentous 18^th year of King Josiah of Judah.

Manasseh - who I estimated to have died late-ish in the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah - would have been well and truly dead by now.

But how to reconcile Shallum as, according to Mendel, having “a prominent position in the royal court. He was the keeper of the king’s wardrobe, in charge of the king’s robes and clothes for all occasions”, with Manasseh’s supervising farm workers in Bethulia (Judith 8:2-3): “[Manasseh] died during the barley harvest. He had suffered a sunstroke while in the fields supervising the farm workers and later died in bed at home in Bethulia”?

Perhaps in the same way that we can have Judith both as a relatively reclusive type in Bethulia, but also doubling (as Huldah) as a famed teacher and Judge in Jerusalem.

Zebedee, of the NT, it thought to have been a priest - he and his sons, James and John - yet he also apparently earned a living as a fisherman in Galilee. M. Murray writes: “The prologue to the Acts of John by Prochorus states that Zebedee was a priest who lived in Jerusalem, near the temple ...” (The Sons of Zebedee: A Biography of the Apostle James and John).

Manasseh was, for his part, a man of wealth, having “gold and silver, servants and slaves, livestock and fields” (Judith 8:7-8). His “servants and slaves” could conceivably have looked after his affairs in Bethulia if/whenever he may have had to attend to other duties in Jerusalem.

Judith, moreover, “continued to supervise the estate” (v. 7).

Given Manasseh’s closeness to the king (Hezekiah, as I would estimate) presuming he were the same as Shallum and that he had indeed held “a prominent position in the royal court …”, then it may not be unreasonable to suggest that he was actually related to the royal house. He, as a fellow-citizen in Bethulia of “Uzziah”, who was a veritable “prince of the people of Israel” (cf. Judith 6:15 and 13:23, Douay) - and who was, I believe, the prophet Isaiah himself - may thus have been (as tradition tells about Isaiah) a relative of kings of Judah.

According to tradition, Isaiah’s father, Amos, was a ‘brother’ of King Amaziah of Judah, and Isaiah was a nephew, or cousin, of Amaziah’s son, King Uzziah of Judah.

“… Tradition states that Isaiah was a cousin of Uzziah or a nephew of Amaziah (Talmud Meg. 10b)”: https://bible.org/article/introduction-isaiah

A Tentative Suggestion

With such royal connections (presumably through marriage) in mind, then my proposal will be that Manasseh, as Shallum, was actually related to King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, rendered in 2 Kings 22:14 as “Harhas”, or “Hasrah”.

Hasrah is a pretty good rendering of Azariah.

He would serve the later king Hezekiah quite intimately, as ‘keeper of his wardrobe’.

Also referred to in Shallum’s genealogy is “Tikvah” (var. Tokhath), who may well be the Tikvah of Ezra 10:15 whose descendant, Jahzeiah, was one of the few to oppose Ezra’s instruction about marrying foreign women.

That this Tikvah was not of the priestly (Levite) line - {I had previously wondered whether “keeper of the wardrobe” was a function pertaining specifically to priestly vestments} - may be indicated by the fact that one of the opponents of Ezra here, “Shabbethai”, is specifically called “the Levite”.

If Manasseh/Shallum were (apparently like Isaiah) related to King Uzziah, through marriage, then the former may turn out to be one of Isaiah’s very sons. My choice in such a case would be Isaiah’s wonderfully-named son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, whose birth at the approximate time of the Syro-Ephraïmite War is what I roughly calculated for the birth of Manasseh.

We are briefly introduced to this child in Isaiah 8:1-4:

The Lord said to me, ‘Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’.So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria’.

Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, apart from fitting quite well chronologically, has a name that is, according to Abarim, associated to “Shallun”, which is very close to our “Shallum” (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Maher-shalal-hash-baz.html):

Associated Biblical names

♂Maher-shalal-hash-baz מהר שלל חש בז

♂Shallunשלון

♂⌂②Shelahשלח
שלה

And, considering the confusion of names in the Book of Judith in its present state (as we have discussed), the name of the otherwise unknown “Manasseh” may be a reasonable attempt to render perhaps the first part of that mouthful of a name: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.