Isaiah 8:3

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Then the LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ²And I will appoint for myself trustworthy witnesses-Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah." ³And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.⁴For before the boy knows how to cry 'Father' or 'Mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria." ⁵And the LORD spoke to me further: ⁶"Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty rushing waters of the Euphrates-the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and run over all its banks. ⁸It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

went: Heb. approached

the prophetess: Judges 4:4, 2 Kings 22:14

she conceived: Hosea 1:3-9

Call his name: Isaiah 7:13, Isaiah 7:14, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, Isaiah 8:1

Reciprocal: Ruth 4:10 - ye are witnesses Isaiah 8:18 - I and the Jeremiah 20:3 - hath Luke 1:13 - thou Luke 1:60 - Not Hebrews 13:4 - Marriage

Cross-References

Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Genesis 7:24
And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I went unto the prophetess,.... His wife, so called; not because she prophesied, but because she was the wife of a prophet; and besides, the birth of her son later mentioned, and his name, had in them the nature of a prophecy. The phrase of going unto her is an euphemism, a modest way of expressing the conjugal debt:

and she conceived and bare a son; which Jarchi would have the same with Immanuel in Isaiah 7:14 but this is a later prophecy, and a distinct one from that; and not only the names of the children are different, but the mothers also; the one a virgin, the other the prophet's wife.

Then said the Lord to me, call his name Mahershalalhashbaz: of the signification of this name, Isaiah 7:14- :. Kimchi thinks that his name did not consist of these four words, only of two of them; and that he was sometimes called "Mahershalal", and sometimes "Hashbaz": both signifying the same thing. Some think that all this was done only in a vision, and not in reality, to declare and confirm what follows; though by that it seems rather to be a real fact.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then said the Lord ... - The name thus given was to be emblematic of a particular event - that Assyria would soon take away the spoil of Damascus and Samaria. It is not remarkable that the name Immanuel should also be given to the same child, as signifying the presence and protection of God in defending the nation from the invaders; see the notes at Isaiah 7:14-15. Calvin thinks that all this passed in a vision before the prophet; but it has every mark of being a literal narrative of the birth of a son to Isaiah; and without this supposition, it is impossible to understand the account contained here.