2 Kings 22:14 - Exposition

So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahi-ham, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asa-hiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah . The principal prophets at or very near the time were Jeremiah, whose mission had commenced in Josiah's thirteenth year ( Jeremiah 1:2 ) and Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, whose prophecy appears by internal evidence to have belonged to the earliest part of Josiah's reign. It might have been expected that the matter would have been laid before one of these two persons. Possibly, however, neither of them was at Jerusalem. Jeremiah's early home was Anathoth, and Zephaniah may have finished his course before Josiah's eighteenth year (see Pusey, l.s.c .). Huldah may thus have been the only possessor of the prophetic gift who was accessible . The son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; literally, keeper of the garments : In Chronicles the name of the keeper is given as "Hasrah." Now she dwelt at Jerusalem in the college —rather, in the lower city (comp. Zephaniah 1:10 and Nehemiah 11:9 ; literally, in each place, "the second city ")— and they communed with her ; literally, spoke with her ; ἐλάλησαν πρὸς αὐτήν , LXX .