maher-shalal-hash-baz Summary and Overview

plunder speedeth; spoil hasteth, (Isa. 8:1-3; compare Zeph. 1:14), a name Isaiah was commanded first to write in large characters on a tablet, and afterwards to give as a symbolical name to a son that was to be born to him (Isa. 8:1, 3), as denoting the sudden attack on Damascus and Syria by the Assyrian army.

(i.e. hasten-booty speedspoil), whose name was given by divine direction to indicate that Damascus and Samaria were soon to be plundered by the king of Assyria. #Jer 8:14|

("hasteth to the spoil, speedeth to the prey".) As Immanuel, Isaiah's (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 8:1-4) first son by the virgin, was the sign of Judah's deliverance, so Maher-shalal-hash-baz the second son is the sign of destruction to Judah's enemies, Syria and Samaria. (See IMMANUEL.) Assyria will speedily spoil these. The prophet was to write Maher-shalal-hash-baz in a great roll with a man's pen, i.e. in ordinary characters, large enough for all to read, that after the event its correspondence to the prediction might be seen. Shearjashub (Isaiah 7:3, "a remnant shalt return") was another sign that Judah should not be utterly destroyed, notwithstanding its terrible defeat by Pekah of Israel, and notwithstanding Syria's confederacy with Israel against it (Isaiah 7:17-25; Isaiah 8:6-9).