Comparing the Greatness of Chuldah and Rachav

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As with many prophets, Chuldah HaNavia is not as widely known as would be appropriate given her contribution to the Jewish people. Chuldah’s story is brought in Melachim II¹, where Yoshiyahu HaMelech sends his advisors to Chuldah to make sense of the ominous scroll found in the Beit HaMikdash. Chuldah’s piece spans only seven pesukim, yet her words impacted the rest of Jewish history. Let’s learn more about Chuldah and the significance of her brief prophecy.

Firstly, some historical background. Chulda lived in the time of the first Beit Hamikdash, and her contemporary prophets included Zephania and Yirmiyahu, who the Gemara notes was a relative of hers². Other notable relatives of Chuldah include her forebears, Rachav and Yehoshua³. While these familial relations are interesting, it is unlikely that the Gemara informed us of this for curiosity’s sake. Upon closer inspection, there are interesting parallels between Chuldah and Rachav.

The first notable connection, though likely not the most informative, is the feature of walls. In Sefer Yehoshua, it’s noted that Rachav lives in the walls of Yericho⁴. Similarly, Rashi points out that when the pasuk states that Chuldah was “living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh⁵”, it means that she was in between the two walls that surrounded the city⁶.

The more significant connection is in the messages delivered by each woman. When Calev and Pinchas are in Rachav’s home, she tells them how she and all of the Canaanim heard that Hashem split the Yam Suf and took Am Yisrael out of Mitzrayim, and how He defeated the kingdoms who opposed them⁷. She acknowledged that “Hashem your God is the only God in heaven above and on earth below.”⁸ With this knowledge, Rachav had no doubt that if Hashem said He would destroy a people, that He would do so. So, she left behind her life and home, and escaped with her family to join Am Yisrael. Now, what does this have to do with Chuldah?

Chuldah’s prophecy states that Hashem will “bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants … Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods and provoked My anger with all their deeds, My wrath is kindled against this place and it shall not be quenched.”⁹ Where the decree once targeted the Nations, it now targeted Am Yisrael. Rachav may not have had prophecy, but both she and Chuldah delivered powerful admonitions on their relative guilty parties.

Rashi and the Metzudat David note that Chuldah was chosen by the king because women are more merciful than men, and the Gemara relates that a woman would beseech Hashem for mercy on a bad decree more readily than a man would. The Abarbanel, however, says that this reason is insufficient. He reasons that a prophecy is the word of Hashem just spoken through the mouth of a given prophet, and that the will of the prophet should have no bearing on the message itself.

The final connection between these two women is their actual lineage. The gemara relates that as a reward for Rachav’s actions, eight prophets descended from her¹⁰. Rabbi Yehuda¹¹ added that Chuldah was also a descendent, and thus part of Rachav’s reward. Chuldah, in many ways, was an extension and completion of Rachav.

The idea that Chuldah came to complete a journey that started with Rachav offers clarity to a question brought by the maforshim. Rashi¹² and the Metzudat David¹³ note that Chuldah was chosen by the king because women are more merciful than men, and the Gemara relates that a woman would beseech Hashem for mercy on a bad decree more readily than a man would¹⁴. The Abarbane¹⁵l, however, says that this reason is insufficient. He reasons that a prophecy is the word of Hashem just spoken through the mouth of a given prophet, and that the will of the prophet should have no bearing on the message itself.

The position of the Abarbanel is especially rational as the message in the scroll was bad enough that “When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Teaching, he rented his clothes.”¹⁶ So, it obviously was not good, and the prophecy explaining it was highly unlikely to give it a positive spin.

There is another reason offered by the maforshim, which is that Chuldah was consulted because Yirmiyahu and Tzephania were not in Jerusalem at the time¹⁷. While this was also quite plausible, it is likely that there was some hashgacha pratit in this. Chuldah being a descendent of Rachav was destined to reiterate the words of her ancestor. Rachav saw the beginning of Am Yisrael’s conquest of Israel, and Chuldah was there to watch it end.

Rachav saw what happened when people did not heed the word of Hashem and put other false gods before him, and Chuldah was teaching that exact same principle centuries after. Chuldah’s prophecy alone is a stark rebuke of the Jewish people, and it is made even more scathing when we realize that the Jews committed the very same mistake that cost the Nations the land of Israel to begin with.