Hasrah is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Hasrah was the grandfather of Shallum, the husband of Huldah the prophetess. He is named in the genealogical chain given in 2 Chronicles 34:22, where Shallum is identified as “the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah.” In the parallel account of 2 Kings 22:14, this same ancestor is called Harhas, a variation of the same name. Hasrah is also described in that verse as the keeper of the wardrobe — though the precise grammatical attachment of that title is debated, the source note and the KJV text place him in this lineage as the grandfather of Shallum.
Hasrah appears in the narrative of King Josiah’s reforms. When Hilkiah the priest and the king’s appointed men discovered the Book of the Law in the temple and sought a word from the Lord, they went to Huldah the prophetess, who was the wife of Shallum. Hasrah himself was not present in the account; his name is preserved only because it identifies Shallum, and through Shallum, Huldah. He is a background figure, known only through his descendants.
Scripture says nothing else about Hasrah — no deeds, no words, no personal history. He is one of the many quiet names in the Old Testament whose significance lies entirely in the generations that followed them. His legacy in the biblical text is that his grandson married a prophetess through whom God spoke to a king.
The Name
The Hebrew name Hasrah (חַסְרָה) is not one whose meaning is clearly recoverable from the biblical text. Some scholars have tentatively connected it to a root suggesting “lack” or “want,” but this is not well established, and the name appears only here in the KJV. The parallel form Harhas (חַרְחַס) in 2 Kings 22:14 is likewise obscure. Because the meaning is uncertain, it is best to say so plainly rather than assign a meaning the text does not support.
A Closing Thought
Hasrah never speaks, never acts, and never appears on the page of Scripture except as a name in a family line. Yet through that line came Shallum, and through Shallum came Huldah, the prophetess who delivered God’s word to King Josiah. It is a quiet reminder that faithfulness often works unseen across generations. We may never know the full reach of a life lived before God, but He does. Hasrah’s name endures not because of what he did, but because of where he stood in a story far larger than himself.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 2 Chronicles 34:22 — And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.