Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women

The Words in the Scroll

231 Then the high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, “I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord.” . . . When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Teaching, he rent his clothes. And the king gave orders to the priest Hilkiah, and to Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Michaiah, and the scribe Shaphan, and Asaiah, the king’s minister: “Go, inquire of the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of this people, and on behalf of all Judah, concerning the words of this scroll that has been found. For great indeed must be the wrath of the Lord that has been kindled against us, because our fathers did not obey the words of this scroll to do all that has been prescribed for us.” So the priest Hilkiah, and Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah—the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe—who was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and they spoke to her. She responded: “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me; Thus said the Lord: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants, in accordance with all the words of the scroll which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods and vexed Me with all their deeds, My wrath is kindled against THE WORDS IN THE SCROLL k For Alicia this place and it shall not be quenched. But say this to the king, who sent you to inquire of the Lord: Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: As for the words which you have heard—because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I decreed against this place and its inhabitants— that it will become a desolation and a curse—and because you rent your clothes and wept before me, I for my part have listened—declares the Lord. Assuredly, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be laid in your tomb in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the disaster which I will bring upon this place.” So they brought back the reply to the king. —2 KINGS 22:8,11–20 E veryone wants to know if I wrote it. You want to know too, hmmm? Did Huldah write the Book of Deuteronomy, that inspiring, bullying tract? Did she sneak it into the Temple while the priests’ watches were changing? Well? What do you think? Do you suppose I tell everyone everything the first time she asks? I might have slammed the door in their faces, you know. That would have changed history, hmmm? How would you feel if you saw a gaggle of silk-robed administrators at your door? Administrators are boring people! They have so much ink in their ears that they cannot report what they are told in an accurate fashion, and their fashion itself is barbaric. My eyes are old! How much scarlet can they take? And they all have gray beards like the birds’ nests in my chimney. Yes, birds’ nests over my cooking fires—because I don’t cook! I am far too busy with the needs of the common folk, that is, their need to be talked out of their foolishness. Not an easy job. No. Particularly with such bad reporting. 232 S I S T E R S A T S I N A I Yet there they were, the nervous, mouse-faced creatures with their half-nibbled scroll. No doubt one of them had been snacking on it. Achbor! Shaphan! I knew them when they were scribe’s apprentices and went about with blackened fingers! I learned to read and write by hiding on the roof of the scriptorium. I peered through the skylight at their cramped scribblings on potsherds. Hilkiah the high priest I knew also, the oily autocrat. Maybe he wrote the scroll! He lifted it eagerly enough, with his proud white hand, until the hem of my old gray robe brushed against his fingernails . He nearly jumped backward. Some people think only clean laundry is relevant, not prophecy. I debated whether to get my broom and sweep the lot of them into the street. Hilkiah, my old rival...