Huldah
Hul'dah (Hebrew Chuldah', חֻלדָּה, weasel; Sept. ῎Ολδαν, Josephus Ο᾿λδά, Ant. 10, 4, 2), wife of Shallum, a prophetess, who, in the reign of Josiah, abode in that part of Jerusalem called the Mishneh, where the book of the law was discovered by the high-priest Hilkiah. B.C. 623. This prophetess was consulted respecting the denunciations which it contained. She then delivered an oracular response of mingled judgment and mercy; declaring the not remote destruction of Jerusalem, but promising Josiah that he should be taken from the world before these evil days came (2Ki 22:14-20; 2Ch 21:4,20). Huldah is only known for this circumstance. She was probably at this time the widow of Shallum, a name too common to suggest any information; he is said to have been "keeper of the wardrobe," but whether the priestly or the royal wardrobe is uncertain. If the former, he must have been a Levite, if not a priest. SEE HARHAS. As to her residence בִּמַּשׁנֶה, in the Mishneh, which the A.V. renders "in the college," there is no ground to conclude that any school or college of the prophets is to be understood. The name means second or double; and many of the Jews themselves (as Jarchi states) understood it as the name of the suburb lying between the inner and outer wall of Jerusalem; perhaps 1. q. "the lower city," or Acra (q.v.). It is safest to regard it as a proper name denoting some quarter of Jerusalem about which we are not certain, and, accordingly, to translate in the mishneh, for which we have the precedent of the Septuagint, which has ἑν τῇ Μασεν῝5. The place of her residence is mentioned probably to show why she, being at hand, was resorted to on this urgent occasion, and not Jeremiah, who was then probably away at his native town Anathoth, or at some more distant place. There were gates of the temple in the middle of the southern wall, called "the gates of Huldah" (Mishna, tit. Middoth, 1, 3), which, if they were so named from any connection with tile prophetess, may indicate her residence on Ophel. SEE SHALLUM; SEE JOSIAH.
