Huldah: an Interpreter of God’s Law

by: Verlyn Verbrugge

Imagine making a most amazing discovery while repairing a church: you find a Bible! Now imagine that no Bible has been seen in living memory. That’s the stunning find recorded in this chapter. For more than seven decades, most of them spent deep in idolatry, God’s written law had been hidden in some dark corner of the temple in Jerusalem.

Shaphan took this law (probably the book of Deuteronomy) and read it to King Josiah. The king wanted to know its meaning, especially of the curses in Deuteronomy 28. So the priests took the book to Huldah, a prophetess living in Jerusalem. Note how four times Huldah speaks the phrase “Thus says the Lord,” as she interprets the past and predicts the future.

Why did the priests bring this book to a woman? After all, there were plenty of men prophesying at this time in Jerusalem. We can’t know for certain, but we know God called both men and women in the Old Testament to be prophets.

Huldah testified that God would not go back on his word. Because of Judah’s idolatry, he would carry out those curses, though not during the days of God-fearing Josiah. Through Huldah, God reminds us of the importance of developing a relationship with him and of obeying his eternal Word.