Rat, Huldah

Another biblical (very unattractive) creature that is also a biblical character’s first name is ‘chool•da,’ which means a rat. This name is the feminine form of the name ‘cho•led.’

This animal is mentioned in the Bible as an animal once and twice as a female name. We don’t know how this woman, who prophesied over Israel during the time of King Josiah and the prophet Jeremiah, received such an unpleasant name.

Very few people, if any, are identified using that name. However, ‘Chool•da’ is a name of a kibbutz in Israel that was established in 1909, probably after the name of ‘Choolda,’ the prophet.

Here’s ‘chool•da’ in the Bible as an animal:

“These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the rat, and the mouse, and the tortoise after its kind”

Here’s the ‘Chool•da’ in the Bible as a woman’s name:

“And Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter; and they talked with her”