Chuldah HaNeviah
660 BCE · Biblical · Jerusalem
Chuldah was a prophetess in Jerusalem in the time of King Yoshiyahu. Her husband was Shallum son of Tikvah, keeper of the royal wardrobe, and she lived in the Mishneh, a quarter of the city (2 Kings 22:14). In Yoshiyahu's eighteenth year a scroll of the Teaching was found in the Temple. The king sent the high priest Chilkiyahu and his senior officials to her to inquire of God. Disaster would come on Jerusalem because of its idolatry. But because the king had humbled himself and wept when he heard the scroll, he would be gathered to his ancestors in peace and would not see it (22:15-20). Her words led directly to Yoshiyahu's covenant and religious reform. Chronicles repeats the account (2 Chronicles 34:22-28). Rabbinic tradition counts her among the seven prophetesses of Israel (Megillah 14a; Seder Olam 21). The Talmud asks how she could prophesy while Yirmiyahu was active, and answers that she was his close relative. It also asks why the king sent to her rather than to Yirmiyahu, and gives two answers: women are more compassionate, or Yirmiyahu was away (Megillah 14b). The Mishnah names two southern gates of the Temple Mount 'the Chuldah Gates' (Middot 1:3).
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
She lived in the Mishneh quarter of Jerusalem, where King Yoshiyahu's officials consulted her about the newly found Torah scroll (2 Kings 22:14-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22).
Jerusalem in this era
In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
Nachum HaNavi, Tzefaniah HaNavi, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Chuldah HaNeviah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Nachum HaNavi, Tzefaniah HaNavi, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Chuldah HaNeviah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.