Huldah’s oracle: The origin of the Chronicler’s typical style?

Scholars of Chronicles normally emphasise that the Chronicler used typical words andphrases in those parts that belong to his Sondergut. Amongst these are phrases like ‘to humbleyourself’, ‘to seek Yahweh’, and ‘not to forsake Yahweh’. The writer’s typical changes to theburial notices of the royal narratives also belong in this category. Something which is oftenoverlooked, however, is that many of these features already occur in the narrative aboutHuldah’s oracle (2 Chr 34:19–28) which was taken over with only minor changes from theDeuteronomistic version (2 Ki 22:11–20). My paper investigates whether or not the Huldahoracle could have served as theological paradigm according to which the Chroniclerdeveloped his own unique style. If so, the investigation will prompt me to revisit the issue ofhow continuity and discontinuity, with the older historiographical tradition, characterise theidentity negotiation process that we witness in this literature.