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.