Isaiah and His Sons

 

 

II.            Introduction

 

In the course of discussing the well known Christian apologetic and missionary so-called "Virgin Birth proof text", Isaiah 7:14, the issue of the identity of the child who, according to that verse, will be born and named  (immanu'el)[1], has received a great deal of attention.  Christian apologists and missionaries claim this verse to be the prophetic foretelling of the birth of the Christian messiah, lord, and savior Jesus, an event that would occur more than 700 years after these words were spoken by the Prophet Isaiah.  They base this claim on the fact that this verse is allegedly "quoted" in the New Testament by the author of the Gospel of Matthew:

 

Matthew 1:23(KJV) – "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," which being interpreted is, "God with us."

 

The embellishment at the end of the verse, concerning the meaning of the name, which does not appear in the source, provides a significant clue for understanding the basis of this claim.

 

The detailed Jewish perspective on Isaiah 7:14, including the various arguments by Christian apologists and missionaries, and how to refute them, is covered in another essay[2].  The present essay is an "excursion" relative to Isaiah 7:14, in that it focuses on Isaiah and his sons who are named in Chapters 7 & 8 in the Book of Isaiah.

 

III.            Isaiah and His Sons

 

Consider Isaiah’s own declaration about himself and his children:

 

Isaiah 8:18 - Here I am, and the children whom the L-rd has given me for signs and for wonders in Israel; [they are] from the L-rd of Hosts, Who dwells on Mount Zion.

 

Isaiah states that G-d gave him children for signs to the nation of Israel, which points to the way his children (at least those mentioned in Hebrew Bible) were named.  [Isaiah himself was ordered to be a sign to Israel, a story that is recorded in the 20^th  chapter in the Book of Isaiah.]  All his sons have names that are symbolically connected with certain prophesied events, a clue that will be used in the upcoming analysis to look for and identify Isaiah’s named children, who will not necessarily appear in a chronological order relative to their age.

 

2. One Son -  (sh^ear yashuv)

 

The first named son encountered in the Book of Isaiah is  (sh^ear yashuv) (properly transliterated Hebrew [not anglicized] names are used in this presentation):

 

Isaiah 7:3 – And the L-rd said to Isaiah, “Now go out toward Ahaz, you, and sh^ear yashuv [] your son; to the edge of the conduit of the upper pool, to the road of the washer's field.

 

The literal translation of the name  (sh^ear yashuv) is a remnant shall return, and there can be no doubt here about this boy being Isaiah’s son – this is stated explicitly in the verse.

 

Can one find this sign,  (sh^ear yashuv), a remnant shall return, mentioned by Isaiah anywhere else?  The answer is YES - not just once, but twice, as follows:

 

Isaiah 10:21-22 – (21) A remnant shall return [ (sh^ear yashuv)], a remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty G-d [or, mighty hero].  (22) For if your people Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant {of them} shall return [ (sh^ear yashuv) {bo}]; the decreed destruction shall overflow with righteousness.

 

Note that, while the events described in Chapter 7 relate to the siege on Jerusalem by the two armies of the north during the reign of King Ahaz, the prophetic words in Chapter 10 about a righteous remnant of Israel returning are spoken by Isaiah to King Hezekiah, the son of King Ahaz. 

 

The historical realization of this sign is found in 2 Chronicles 30, where a description is found of Hezekiah's celebration of the Passover after the cleansing and consecration of the Temple In Jerusalem.  The narrative starts by speaking of the invitations that Hezekiah sent out:

 

2 Chronicles 30:1 - And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and he wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to the House of the L-rd in Jerusalem; to do the Passover [sacrifice] to the L-rd, the G-d of Israel.

 

Messengers were dispatched throughout the entire region to deliver the letters:

 

2 Chronicles 30:6 - And the couriers went with the letters from the king and his ministers throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the command of the king, saying, "People of Israel, return [ (shuvu)] to the L-rd, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant [ (ha'pleytah ha'nish'eret)] of you, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria."

 

As these messengers passed from city to city, they did not have an easy time doing their job - they were being heckled and mocked by many.  However, some people accepted the invitation:

 

2 Chronicles 30:10-11 – (10) And the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun; and there were those who laughed at them and mocked them.  (11) But some people of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.

 

Those who gathered in Jerusalem celebrated the Passover for seven days and, upon their return to their respective cities, they destroyed symbols of idolatry:

 

2 Chronicles 31:1 - And when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and smashed the pillars to pieces, and cut down the Asherah trees, and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim, and in Manasseh, until they had completely destroyed them all; and all the people of Israel returned, every man to his possession, to their own cities.

 

A remnant from what was the Northern Kingdom of Israel returned to Judah, during the reign of Hezekiah to celebrate the Passover, and they repented and returned to G-d.  And, thus, the prophetic sign,  (sh^ear yashuv), a remnant shall return, was realized.

 

3. Another Son –  (maher shalal hash baz)

 

Another son is named in Chapter 8,  (maher shalal hash baz),

 

Isaiah 8:3 - And I was intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son;  and the L-rd said to me, “Call his name maher shalal hash baz []”.

 

The literal translation of the name  (maher shalal hash baz) is quicken-booty hasten-plunder and, as was the case with  (sh^ear yashuv), there is no doubt here that this child is Isaiah’s son – this is stated explicitly in the text.

 

Can one find this sign,  (maher shalal hash baz), quicken-booty hasten-plunder, mentioned by Isaiah anywhere else?  Again, the answer is YES - once in the identical form and twice more with similar Hebrew terminology and in the same context.  The first instance is a prophetic statement about the impending looting by Assyria of all the possessions of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and about Babylon's arrival to pillage the Kingdom of Judah, along with Zedekiah and that generation:

 

Isaiah 8:1 - And the L-rd said to me, "Take a great scroll, and write on it in clear script, quicken-booty hasten-plunder [ (maher shalal hash baz)]."

 

The other two instances are prophetic statements concerning those who perverted justice and took advantage of the poor, the widows, and the needy.  They will be among the people of the hypocritical Northern Kingdom of Israel against whom Assyria will be sent in order to punish them:

 

Isaiah 10:2 - To pervert the judgment of the impoverished, and to rob the right from the poor of My people; to make widows be their booty [ (sh^elalam)], and orphans they should plunder [ (yavozu)].

 

Isaiah 10:6 - I will send them against a hypocritical nation, and against the people that anger Me will I order them; to take booty [ (lishlol shalal)], and to plunder [ (v^elavoz baz)], and to tread them down like the mud of the streets.

 

The historical realization of this sign is the exiling and dispersal of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, which occurred in three stages:

 

2 Kings 15:29 - In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-Pil'eser, king of Assyria, came and took Iyon, and Abel-Beth-Maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.

 

2 Kings 17:3-4 – (3) Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, went up against him [Hoshea the son of Elah]; and Hoshea became his vassal, and paid him tribute.  (4) And the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea betrayed him, because he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as [he had done] year by year; and the king of Assyria arrested him, and incarcerated him in prison. 

 

2 Kings 17:5-6 - (5) The king of Assyria went up against all the land; and he went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.  (6) In the ninth year [of the reign] of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and exiled Israel to Assyria, and he settled them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

 

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was uprooted, with the distress being felt by the population as described according to the sign. 

 

And this was the fate of the Kingdom of Judah:

 

2 Kings 25:1-11 - (1) And it came to pass in the ninth year of his [Zedekiah's] reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against her; and they built a siege wall around her.  (2) And the city was under siege until the eleventh year [of the reign] of king Zedekiah.  (3) On the ninth day the famine grew stronger in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.  (4) And the city was broken into, and all the men of war [fled] during the night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was near the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, and [the king] went the way of the Arabah.  (5) And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him on the plains of Jericho; and all his army had deserted him.  (6) And they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah; and they put him on trial.  (7) And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; and [they] blinded the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains of copper, and carried him to Babylon.  (8) And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year [of the reign] of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, the chief executioner, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem.  (9) And he burnt the House of the L-rd, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the house of the dignitaries he burnt with fire.  (10) And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the chief executioner, demolished the walls around Jerusalem.  (11) And the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the defectors who defected to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the population, Nebuzaradan, the chief executioner, carried away....

 

The prophetic sign,  (maher shalal hash baz), quicken-booty hasten-plunder, was realized indeed.

 

4. Yet Another Son –  (immanu'el)

 

Whose is this son in Isaiah 7:14, who was to be named  (immanu'el)?  Yes, he was, of course, going to be the son born to the female that is spoken of in this verse, but who might that female have been, and who, then, would have been the child's father?

 

Although the Jewish Sages are not unanimous regarding the identity of this child, they all agree that the boy was born within the historical timeframe of the events being described in this part of the Book of Isaiah.  Some hold that the female was the pregnant (or soon to be pregnant) Queen, the wife of King Ahaz, which would make the child one of King Ahaz’ sons, the younger sibling of Hezekiah, who was at least nine years old at the time this prophecy was spoken.  Others suggest the female was the pregnant (or soon to be pregnant) "prophetess", the wife of Isaiah (Is 8:3), so that the child was one of Isaiah’s sons.  This disagreement among the Jewish Sages is inconsequential to the context of the historical events described.  In the following analysis, the feasibility that  (immanu'el) is another one of Isaiah's sons will be demonstrated.

 

Two of Isaiah’s sons have already been identified in person, the signs that correspond to their respective names have been located in the generally relevant portion of the Book of Isaiah, Chapters 7-10, and the evidence of the fulfillment of these prophetic signs was identified in the historic accounts of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  Can this type of pattern be identified for  (immanu'el)?

 

The name  (immanu'el) first appears in the following well-known passage:

 

Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the L-rd Himself shall give you a sign, "Behold the young woman is with child, and she will bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanu'el [ (immanu'el)]."

 

The literal translation of the name  (immanu'el) is G-d is with us.  Yet, unlike the case with the previous two names, the relationship of this child to Isaiah is not explicitly stated in the Hebrew Bible.  Whose son is he?

 

The challenge here is to see if this sign,  (immanu'el), G-d is with us, spoken of in Isaiah 7:14, can be found elsewhere.  Is it mentioned anywhere else by Isaiah?  The answer is YES - not once, but twice, as follows:

 

Isaiah 8:8 - And it will penetrate into Judah, it will overflow as it passes through, it will reach up to the neck; and the tips of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, Immanu-El [ (immanu el)].  {Note: Some Hebrew Bibles use here the alternate form, Immanu'el [ (immanu'el)].}

 

Isaiah 8:10 - Take counsel, and it will be foiled; speak a word, and it will not happen; for G-d is with us [ (ki immanu E-l)].

 

In the first passage,  (immanu el) is mentioned as a member of the Tribe of Judah, and is part of the prophecy described in that passage.  In the second passage,  (immanu el) is used as a prophetic manifestation of the sign signified by his name, G-d is with us. 

 

Historically, this prophetic sign was soon to be realized, as one learns from the account of the siege on Jerusalem by Sannheriv, king of Assyria, as described in 2 Chronicles 32.  First, came the promise by King Hezekiah to his people:

 

2 Chronicles 32:7-8 – (7) "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and dismayed because of the king of Assyria, and because of all the multitude that is with him; for He Who is with us [ (immanu)] is greater than that [which is] with him; (8) With him is an arm of flesh; and with us is the L-rd our G-d [ (v^eimmanu A-dona'i E-loheynu)] to help us, and to fight our wars."  And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

 

Then, the outcome is described:

 

2 Chronicles 32:22 - And the L-rd saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sannheriv, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.

 

G-d was with the House of Judah, but He was not with the House of Israel.  The prophetic sign,  (immanu'el), G-d is with us, was realized for Judah.

 

Question:  Is there a special significance to the use of one of G-d's titles in the name  (immanu'el)?

 

Answer:  No.  Many Jewish names contain one of several titles commonly used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to G-d, and often they include some description and/or accolade of G-d.  This subject can be a lengthy discussion all by itself, which is beyond the scope of the present discussion.  In order to focus on this attribute as it pertains to the name  (immanu'el), some examples of other Biblical names of a similar nature will now be described.

 

One such name is  (avi'yah), and its variant  (avi'yahu), the anglicized version of which is Abijah.  The English translation of this name is G-d is my father, since avi means my father and Yah[u] means [He is] G-d.  There are 23 instances of  (avi'yah) and two of  (avi'yahu), in the Hebrew Bible, and these represent eight distinct persons (e.g., 1 Sam 8:2; 1 Kgs 14:1; Neh 10:8; 1 Chron 2:24; 1 Chron 3:10; 1 Chron 7:8; 1 Chron 24:10; 2 Chron 29:1; one example per person, respectively).

 

Another such name is  (ahi'yah), and its variant  (ahi'yahu), the anglicized version of which is Ahijah.  The English translation of this name is G-d is my brother, since ahi means my brother and Yah[u] means [He is] G-d.  There are 19 instances of  (ahi'yah) and five of  (ahi'yahu), in the Hebrew Bible, and these represent nine distinct persons (e.g., 1 Sam 14:13; 1 Kgs 4:3; 1 Kgs 11:29; 1 Kgs 16:27; Neh 10:27; 1 Chron 2:25; 1 Chron 8:7; 1 Chron 11:36; 1 Chron 26:20; one example per person, respectively).

 

Yet another example of such name is  (avi'el), the anglicized version of which is Abiel.  The English translation of this name is G-d is my father.  There are three instances of  (avi'el) in the Hebrew Bible, and these represents two distinct persons (e.g., 1 Sam 9:1; 1 Chron 11:32; one example per person, respectively).

 

A final example of such name, which is actually akin to the name  (immanu'el), G-d is with us, is  (iti'el), the anglicized version of which is Ithiel.  The English translation of this name is G-d is with me and, hence, the similarity to  (immanu'el) – instead of  (immanu), [is] with us, which is in the plural 1^st-person, there is  (iti), [is] with me, in the singular 1^st-person.  There are three instances of  (iti'el) in the Hebrew Bible, and these represents two distinct persons (Pr 30:1[2x]; Neh 11:7, respectively).

 

In the first three examples shown above, the literal meaning of the name reflects a father-son or brother-brother relationship between G-d and the named person.  Since these relationships are obviously not literally true, certainly not for the specific bearers of those names in the Hebrew Bible, one would have to wonder why Christian apologists and missionaries, following Matthew 1:23, claim that there is something special about the name  (immanu'el), namely, that it points to Jesus.  By applying such (faulty) logic, similar arguments could be offered about  (avi'yah), Abijah,  (ahi'yah), Ahijah,  (avi'el), Abiel, and other names of this type that appear in the Hebrew Bible.  Moreover, as was demonstrated in the fourth example, the name  (iti'el), Ithiel, is the "singular voice" equivalent of the name  (immanu'el).

 

Why do Christian apologists and missionaries single out  (immanu'el) as messianic?  What makes  (immanu'el) special relative to the other names?  One likely reason is that the name  (immanu'el) happens to be part of a passage that, with the help of some manipulation during the translation process, can be made to appear as having Christological content.  Since none of the other names of this type occurs in such passages, Christian apologists and missionaries have no particular interest in them and, therefore, they ignore them.

 

IV.            Summary

 

The Prophet Isaiah, in his own words, tells the reader that his children were given as signs from G-d (Is 8:18), and that the name he gave to each of his three sons carried a prophetic message described by these signs and identified as historical events that occurred.  The three sons have been identified:   (sh^ear yashuv; Is 7:3),  (immanu'el; Is 7:14, 8:8), and  (maher shalal hash baz; Is 8:3).  Also identified were the respective specific events for which these names were prophetic signs, along with their respective fulfillments in Jewish history, as recorded in the Hebrew Bible.

 

This method of assigning names to children is not a unique occurrence in the Hebrew Bible.  The Prophet Hosea, Isaiah’s contemporary, who ministered in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, was ordered by G-d to give the following names to his children:  (yizr^eel; Hosea 1:4), G-d Will Sow,  (lo ruhamah; Hosea 1:6), [She Was] Not Pitied, and  (lo ammi; Hosea 1:9), [You Are] Not My People.  Each of these names represented a specific sign that carried a prophetic message, as described in the first chapter in the Book of Hosea.

 

The passage Matthew 1:23 demonstrates, in several ways, that its author either did not have an understanding of the Hebrew language and of the Hebrew Bible, or that he deliberately perverted the words of the Prophet Isaiah to create a passage that would support his specific agenda.  In addition to the mistranslation of the Hebrew noun  (ha'almah), the young woman, and misrepresentation of the tense of the verb  (harah), [she] is pregnant, which were discussed in another essay, of particular interest here is this author's explanation of the name  (immanu'el) as meaning God with us, instead of the correct G-d is with us.  The omission of the verb to be from its meaning enhances the Christological appeal and helps create the false allusion to Jesus.