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go to Ahaz , and deliver him a message from the Lord . Again the prophet delivers another message from the Lord to the king . After he had thus spoken by the prophet to the king * , he now , viii . 1 , speaks to the prophet himself . €€ Moreover the Lord said unto me . " As though
he had said , after having spoken to * the king as just related , the Lord spoke to me also , ' Take thee a great roll , and write in it with a roan ' pen concerning Maher-shalalhash-baz , " But what he was to write concerning him , Isaiah has not informed us . From what follows it
may be presumed that lie was then going to do what God had commanded him . He took unto him faithful witnesses to record , Urijah the priest , and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah , And , after taking these to witness , he went in unto the prophetess , and she conceived , and bare a son .
By this it seems to be intimated that Isaiah was the father of the child to be born , this being in Hebrew the modest expression for the conjugal act . The same word is used with a similar signification in Genesis xx . 4 , in speaking of Abimeiech taking Sarah the wife of Abraham . When it is said that Abimeiech had
not come near her , it is not to be supposed that it was meant that he had not been in her company , nor conversed with her , for this undoubtedly he had done . Yet , fortunately , he had not come near her to lie with
her . A vyord of similar import is oftentimes made use of to express modestly the same idea . What is afterwards added seems to confirm the supposition that Isaiah was the father of the child . For on the birth
of the child the Lord said unto Isaiah , call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz . But why should he be commanded thus to call the child , if it had not been his ? Would he not rather in that case have been commanded to go to the father or mother of the
child , and in the name of the Lord have bid them to call it by that name ? or it would have been expressed passively , his name shall be called , as is done in other instances . When this interpretation is considered minutely , it £ ives tis the reason of his taking , As witnesses , the perfcona ^ ho are there specially named , and
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manifests thfcjpropriety of his so doing . To what particularly he tdok them as witnesses , whether of the truth of what th ^ Lord had said unto him , or of his going in unto the prophetess , or of both , is not declared . In the general we may naturally and justly suppose it to have been that th ^ y should be witnesses of the prediction , by having it regularly written on a roll , and attested by them ; and then afterwards of the truth of its
fulfilment , when the prophecy should be accomplished , which was to be a sign unto Ahaz . On this supposition that they were to be witnesses to Ahaz of the message from the Lord , and of the conception and birth of Maher-shalalhash-baz , who was appointed to be the promised sign to the king , there
appears a great propriety in the prophet's taking them . For Urijah was the priest to Ahaz , see 2 Kings xvL 10— -16 ; and Zechariah , we may conclude , was some eminent person in his day , even the father-in-law of king * Ahaz himself . He is mentioned 2
Kings xviii . 2 , where his daughter is said to be the mother of Hezekiah , who was Ahaz ' s son . Zechariah was , therefore , the father of Abi , the wife of Ahaz . These , then , as it was observed , were very suitable persons to be witnesses to Ahaz of the
accomplishment of the prediction which was to be the sign promised him . Upon the supposition that Mahershalal-hash-baz was Isaiah ' s son , and the child appointed as a sign unto Ahaz , we see the force and reason of the saying of the prophet , ch . viii . 18 : " Behold , I and the children , whom
thou has given me , are for signs in Israel . " And does not what the prophet says , in ver . 8 , confirm this supposition ? After having spoken of the birth of this his son , * how natural for him , when speaking of the land of Judah , to call it the land of this remarkable child , €€ thy land , O Iromanuel ! " because it was bora and would
dwell in that land . How natural , I 8 ay , such an apostrophe ! And what could have been better adapted to shfew us that thfc diflfeVettt names , Immanuel , Mahar-ahldaUhadli-bfcz ,
pointed out one and the saihe child ? It also apjtearfe frdfti tfife interpretati 6 ft tiovfr gken , tii&t * hfe essence or principal pofnt 6 f the dlgn did not consist in the 6 iNh ctf the ekttd . The
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Mr . S . ifreem&h en the Prophekies of fmiah , ch . vSl 503
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1823, page 503, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1788/page/7/
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