Isaiah 8:1

The great sign of Immanuel given in Isaiah 7 indicated that the wonderful child foretold in Isaiah 7:14 would not come to an age of knowledge until after the current crisis was past; but significantly, the actual time of the birth of Immanuel was not disclosed. We agree that Isaiah might have expected that birth centuries before it occurred; but, as we noted earlier, what Isaiah thought was not the key consideration. In any case, some other sign was needed with regard to the present crisis in Judah. This new sign pertained to the birth of Isaiah's own son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz. This is recounted in Isaiah 8:1-4. Isaiah 8:5-8 record Judah's rejection of the gentle waters of Shiloah and the prophecy of God's bringing against them the flood waters of the king of Assyria and all his glory. Isaiah 8:9-15 develop the thought that God is either our refuge or our ruin. The theme of the final paragraph in the chapter, Isaiah 8:16-22, is "The gathering darkness to fall upon Israel."

Isaiah 8:1-4

"And Jehovah said unto me, take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz; and I will take unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeber-e-chiah. And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said Jehovah unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria."

Note that this child shall be of ordinary birth; and "This sign deals only with the contemporary crisis and its darker aspect."[1]

"Maher-shalal-hash-baz ..." This seems such a terrible name to give a precious child; but, much like the prophet Hosea who received prophetic names for his children, Isaiah also received Divine instructions on the names for his children. The detail given here is the primary reason for our belief that Shear-Jashub had received his symbolical name in the same manner. Maher-shalal-hash-baz means "Speed the spoil; hasten the prey"[2] or, as J. B. Phillips has it, "Quick pickings - Easy prey." The terrible meaning is evident enough; God will punish Israel at once, shaving the land with the hired razor, the king of Assyria. God called him a "hired razor" (Isaiah 7:20), because Ahaz had foolishly bribed Assyria to come into Israel as a "protector" against Samaria and Damascus. What is comforting about this sign for Ahaz? It must be admitted that there is no comfort of any kind in it. If there was ever a message of doom, here it is; and in this we can more fully understand that the great sign of The Virgin and Immanuel in the previous chapter could not possibly have been designed to comfort Ahaz. The sign given here is the only sign Ahaz deserved; and it was the only sign he received. The rapidity with which the destruction of Syria and Samaria would be accomplished was certified by the prophecy that the destruction would come very early in the life of Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

"The pen of a man ..." This means the kind of pen that would be used by an ordinary person, one that would make large letters easy to read.[3] "The object of this was, that after the event, all might see that it had been predicted by Isaiah."[4]

"Uriah and Zechariah ..." It would appear that both of these men were part of the establishment and therefore hostile toward Isaiah. This is based upon the assumption that, "Uriah is probably the priest who built a replica of the Damascene altar for Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10-13); Zechariah is unknown."[5] These hostile witnesses made the proof of Isaiah's prophecy more difficult to deny.

"The prophetess ..." This woman was Isaiah's wife and not a virgin, for she was doubtless the mother of their older son, Shear-Jashub. That this was Isaiah's second wife and that she was a virgin at this point in time are false interpretations, rather guesses, based upon a misunderstanding of Isaiah 7:14, as we noted in the Introduction. Why was she called a prophetess? It was due to courtesy, given because of her relationship with Isaiah. This seems to have been customary in the Mid-East; and at a later time, "The third wife of Muhammed, Ayesha, was called a prophetess."[6] It is this same courtesy that speaks of a king's wife as "queen."

"Before the child shall ... cry My father ..." This was dramatically fulfilled in 732 B.C. when Damascus fell to Assyria; and, even when Samaria fell ten years later, "the child" of this passage had not reached the age of accountability.