![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/The-Scroll-being-read-to-Josiah.png?resize=1080%2C608&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
The rediscovered scroll of Deuteronomy was read to Josiah, who reigned as King of Judah from 640 to 609 BC. Josiah immediately commanded the leading religious and political leaders of Judah to find Huldah and have her teach them God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Josiah had become king of Judah when he was only eight years old. In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was twenty-six, he ordered repairs to the Temple. During those repairs, Hilkiah the High Priest of the Temple announced, \u2018I have found the Book of the Law in the house of YHWH.\u2019<\/p>\n
The scroll was given to Shaphan, the royal secretary, who then read it aloud to King Josiah. When the king heard its words, he tore his clothes in distress.<\/p>\n
Most scholars believe the scroll was Deuteronomy, or a portion of the book in your Bible by that name. Josiah immediately recognized that Judah had violated the covenant and therefore stood under divine judgment (see Deuteronomy 28-29).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when King Josiah ordered five men to find Huldah: \u2018Go, inquire of YHWH for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words of this book.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\nJosiah did not appoint a committee, nor did he request a denominational position paper.<\/p>\n
He simply sent five men to Huldah.<\/p>\n\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Five Men Huldah Taught the Word of God<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Solomons-Temple-in-Disrepair.png?resize=1080%2C608&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
A representation of Solomon\u2019s Temple in the days of Huldah and Josiah, with Hiliah as the High Priest (640 to 609 BC).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
These five men were not obscure servants of the court. They represented the religious, political, and administrative leadership of Judah itself.<\/p>\n
1. HILKIAH, the High Priest<\/h3>\n
His name in Hebrew means \u2018YHWH is my portion.\u2019<\/p>\n
He was the highest-ranking religious leader in the nation, the man who supervised the Temple and who had personally discovered the scroll. Yet Hilkiah did not say, \u2018I am the High Priest. I am a man. I will determine what this text means. I dare not be taught by a woman with the gift of prophecy.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n
The High Priest went to Huldah not to correct her theology, but to receive it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
2. AHIKAM, a Royal Official<\/h3>\n
He was the man who years later would protect the prophet Jeremiah when priests, prophets, and political leaders wanted him executed. \u2018The hand of Ahikam\u2019 kept Jeremiah from death, and Ahikam\u2019s own son Gedaliah would later become governor of Judah.<\/p>\n
\n
Ahikam\u2019s family was influential in Judah, but he went to Huldah to be taught.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
3. ACHBOR, a Government Official.<\/h3>\n
His position is never precisely spelled out, yet his inclusion in so small and select a royal delegation shows that he was a senior government official. His son Elnathan later served in the court of King Jehoiakim and appears several times in the Book of Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
\n
Achbor was another powerful man going to Huldah to be taught God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
4. SHAPHAN, the Royal Secretary<\/h3>\n
His position is equivalent to a modern secretary of state. He enjoyed direct access to the Temple treasury, the high priest, the palace, and King Josiah himself. Shaphan\u2019s family repeatedly supported the prophet Jeremiah: his son Ahikam saved Jeremiah\u2019s life, his son Gemariah allowed Jeremiah\u2019s scroll to be read from his chamber, and his son Elasah carried Jeremiah\u2019s letter to the exiles in Babylon.<\/p>\n
\n
Shaphan was Josiah\u2019s most powerful officer, and he went to Huldah to learn.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
5. ASAIAH, \u2018the King\u2019s Servant.\u2019<\/h3>\n
He was not Josiah\u2019s household slave. This phrase in Hebrew describes a trusted palace officer who acted personally on Josiah, the Palace, and the royal family.<\/p>\n
\n
Asaiah represented the king in Huldah\u2019s home, and Asaiah went to Huldah.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Huldah-telling-men-what-the-LORD-says.png?resize=1080%2C607&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
The five men who read the scroll of Deuteronomy with Huldah seated in the traditional seat of \u2018Master Teacher\u2019 while the learners stood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who Was Huldah?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gifted-Huldah.png?resize=954%2C1194&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
Huldah, the ordinary woman of Judah, gifted from the Most High as a prophetess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
The Bible identifies Huldah simply as \u2018the prophetess, the wife of Shallum.\u2019<\/p>\n
Shallum and Huldah operated what you would call in our day \u2018clothes cleaners.\u2019 They washed, dried, and folded the royal garments of the palace, as well as possibly the priestly servant garments of the Temple, or both. The Bible simply calls Huldah the \u2018keeper of the wardrobe.\u2019<\/p>\n
Huldah and Shallum lived in Jerusalem\u2019s \u2018Second Quarter,\u2019 a newer section of the expanding city in 622 BC. She was therefore not an isolated woman living in some unknown village.<\/p>\n
\n
Huldah\u2019s a working woman living in Jerusalem and is known for her giftedness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The gifts of the Spirit are never gender-qualified. Prophesying, teaching, exhorting, and all the gifts God bestows on His people are sovereignly dispensed, independent of the receiver\u2019s gender. That\u2019s taught in the Bible and is the experience of the Church.<\/p>\n
King Josiah recognized that a female prophet lived in the capital city of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
\nHuldah was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had already been prophesying for five years when the lost scroll of Deuteronomy was discovered in 622 BC. God did not use Huldah because no male prophets were available.<\/em><\/strong> Jeremiah was alive. Zephaniah was alive. The High Priest was standing in Huldah\u2019s house.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
God commanded Josiah to send the five men to the female Huldah to learn the Word of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n- The biblical writer offers no apology.<\/li>\n
- He does not explain why a woman was allowed to speak to men.<\/li>\n
- He does not assure nervous readers that Huldah\u2019s husband supervised the conversation.<\/li>\n
- He does not claim she taught only women and children.<\/li>\n
- The men went to Huldah because Huldah was the prophet of YHWH.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Huldah Explained the Word of God to Men<\/strong><\/h2>\nHuldah did not merely offer emotional encouragement. She interpreted the spiritual significance of the newly discovered scroll of YHWH, declared that its covenant warnings applied directly to Judah, announced coming judgment, and explained what the sacred text meant for the king, the government, Jerusalem, and the entire nation.<\/p>\n
She spoke with the formal prophetic declaration \u2018Thus says YHWH.\u2019 <\/em><\/strong>She then told the five men that Judah\u2019s judgment was certain, yet Josiah would receive personal mercy because his heart was tender and he had humbled himself before God.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/The-Reforms.png?resize=1080%2C608&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wadeheadinhands.webp?resize=1080%2C719&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/istoriaministries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Huldah-the-Mole.png?resize=1080%2C716&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n