Isaiah 8:3

3 I then had sex with the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

Isaiah 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 8:3

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, (See Gill on Isaiah 8:1). 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.

Isaiah 8:3 In-Context

1 The LORD said to me, "Take a large tablet, and write on it in ordinary letters, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

2 Summon trusted people, Uriah the priest and Zechariah, Jeberechiah's son, to witness it."

3 I then had sex with the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 Before the boy knows how to say ‘my father' and ‘my mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."

5 The LORD spoke again to me: