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Essential Histories • Ancient Israel at War 853-586 Be
Huldah the prophetess Huldah lived in the capital city Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah of Judah (641-610) and was one of the few female religious figures to be recorded in the HB/OT. Her main story, which is found in 2 Kings 22,114 describes her as "the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe."llS Depending on whether her husband worked with the "wardrobe" of the king or of the priests, Huldah was married to a member of either the court officials or temple personnel. She herself was apparently a court "prophetess." It is unclear precisely what role such female prophets played in ancient Israel, although the HB/OT names four other prophetesses, and texts from Mari and Assyria testify to female prophets in those cultures. They probably had similar functions to male prophets, which included serving as intermediaries between the divine and human realms, and communicating messages from God concerning specific situations. The moment of notoriety for Huldah came in the 18th year of King Josiah (622). At this time, during a repair project on the Jerusalem temple, the high priest Hilkiah found what he called "the book of the law" in the temple: "The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD'."116 Scholars have often concluded that this was an early form of the biblical book of Deuteronomy, particularly the section of various blessings and curses that will come upon the people for obedience or disobedience to Yahweh. When the book was read to Josiah, he went into mourning and ordered the high priest to make an inquiry of Yahweh concerning the fate of the king and people. The high priest Hilkiah, along with the royal secretary, Shaphan, and three others, took the book to Huldah. Her role was not to authenticate the book, since Josiah evidently accepted its authenticity, but to interpret the meaning of its contents for the king and people. In a two-part oracle,lll Huldah
proclaimed that Yahweh would judge Judah for its disobedience by bringing destruction upon the land but Josiah, because he was repentant, would die before he had to witness the destruction first-hand:
... my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But as to the King of Judah ... because your heart was penitent ... you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. lIS In response to Huldah's proclamation, Josiah enacted a widespread religious reform in Judah that called the people into a covenant of obedience to Yahweh's commands and centralized worship in the Jerusalem temple.
Baruch the scribe Baruch the son of Neriah worked as a "scribe" (Hebrew, sopher) in Jerusalem during the final three decades of Judah's existence (c.608-586). The book of Jeremiah recorded his profession and indicated that he was a close companion of the prophet Jeremiah, perhaps even serving as his personal secretary.119 A bulla - an impression in clay made by a stone seal used to secure the strings around a letter - that has been recovered from ancient Judah attests to his profession and contains the words, "belonging to Berechiah [an alternate form of the name Baruch], son of Neriah, the scribe." References in another biblical text and recovered bulla also suggest that Baruch came from a family of scribes and that his brother was the "quartermaster" under King Zedekiah.120 As an ancient scribe, Baruch was a member of a professional guild that functioned within the bureaucracy and fulfilled tasks of writing and record keeping. Since probably only a small percentage of the Judean population was literate, scribes served to record events, note transactions in the temple, and compose official correspondence. Such writing was primarily done on clay, potsherds, papyrus, or leather, and practices from other cultures indicate that scribes often trained in schools run by the temple or royal palace.