Isaiah 8:3

3 Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said, “Call 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 Then the LORD said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ”

2 I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.

3 Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

5 Then the LORD spoke to me again and said,