[1] In the first chapter of Hosea occurs a like instance of
symbolic names given by a prophet to his children, and in
Habakkuk ii. 2, we have mention of the practice of writing
a prophecy on a tablet in easily legible characters, and
hanging it up in the Temple, market-place, or other public
resort. And most modern commentators prefer to think that
Isaiah now merely inscribed "HASTE PLUNDER, SPEED SPOIL,"
in large letters on a metal or waxed tablet, the לִ which
the Authorised Version translates "concerning," being the
_Lamed_ inscription is, in Jerem. xlix. 1, 7, 23, 28; Ezek.
xxxvii. 16; though it may be observed that the direction to
"tie up and seal the testimony," in ver. 16, is in favour
of the older version, which understands him to have made a
record of his expectation of the birth of the child, and of
the significance of that birth, at some length. He wrote
"with a man's pen," or "style,"--a phrase not unlike our
"common hand" or "popular style;" and he took as credible
witnesses that the record had preceded the event, Uriah the
high priest at the time (2 Kings xvi. 10), and Zechariah,
who was not improbably the father-in-law of Ahaz and a
Levite (2 Kings xxviii. 2; 2 Chron. xxix. 1, 18). He calls
his wife "the prophetess," as the wife of a king is called
a queen (says Vitringa), though she does not reign, and in
some old ecclesiastical canons the wife of a bishop
"episcopa," and of a presbyter "presbytera;" and he thus
claims for her a place with her husband and children (see
ver. 18) in the holy and symbolic family, who are for "a
sign in Israel." She gave birth to a child, and his name
was called, in accordance with the writing, "Haste-plunder,
Speed-spoil," that the people might understand that before
he was old enough to utter the words "father" and
"mother,"--that is, within a short but somewhat indefinite
period such as we should express by "in a year or two from
his birth,"--the spoils of the plundered cities of Samaria
and Damascus, the capitals of the nations now invading
Judah, shall have been carried before the Assyrian
conqueror in triumph.
In order to realise the practical impressiveness of such
symbolic acts and names upon Isaiah's contemporaries, we
must remember that Jerusalem was a very small town for size
and population compared with the notion we insensibly get
of a capital from our own vast London; and also that there
was as little in the ways of thinking and living of that
age and country as in the extent of the city to effect such
a separation between a public man's political and private
life as exists in England. We respect the domestic reserve
of our neighbours, and we fortify ourselves in the like
reserve, by our habit of learning what they are doing that
concerns us through the newspaper which we read by our own
fireside. With no newspapers, and a climate which
encouraged an out-of-door life, the people of Jerusalem
would become as familiar with that personal demeanour of
Isaiah in the market-place or elsewhere which he made a
part of his public ministry, as we are with the mental
habits and political conduct of Mr. Gladstone or Mr.
Disraeli, though the greater part of us would recognise
neither of them by sight, and still fewer know anything of
their personal and private life.--_Strachey._
[2] _A great roll._ Rather, _a large tablet:_ of wood or metal,
covered with a smooth surface of wax; which, when written
upon, was hung up in public for all to read (cf. Jer.
xxxii. 11, 14).--_Kay._
[3] _Faithful witnesses._ Or, _sure_ witnesses; whose testimony
none would be able to gainsay: partly, because of their
rank, but still more, it would seem, from their being
adherents of Ahaz. For "Uriah the priest" can scarcely be
any other than the one who made the Syrian altar after the
description sent him from Damascus by Ahaz (2 Kings
xvi. 10-16); thereby (as Mr. Birks notices) furnishing
incontrovertible evidence of the fulfilment of Isaiah's
prediction. Zechariah may have been Ahaz's own
father-in-law (2 Chron. xxix. 1).--_Kay._
[4] Isaiah's interview with Ahaz (chap. vii.), the preparation
of the tablet, the birth of Isaiah's child, and the
conquest of Syria and Israel by the Assyrians under
Tiglath-pileser all took place within the year 743-739 B.C.
_Alexander_ remarks on ver. 4:--"Samaria is here put for
the kingdom, and not for the capital city. But even if the
name be strictly understood, there is no reason to doubt
that Samaria was plundered by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings
xv. 29), although not destroyed. . . . The carrying away of
its wealth does not necessarily imply anything more than
such a spoiling of the capital as might be expected in the
course of a brief but successful invasion."
[5] See Dr. Kennicott's remarks on _Shear-jashub_ in preceding
paper: THE VIRGIN'S SON.