Person Old Testament
Maher-shalal-hash-baz
Maher-shalal-hash-baz, meaning "swift is booty, speedy is prey," was the symbolic name given to Isaiah's son. Mentioned in 2 verses across 1 book, first at Isaiah 8:1.
Why it matters. Symbolic name given to Isaiah's son, meaning "swift is booty, speedy is prey."
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Maher-shalal-hash-baz
Maher-shalal-hash-baz was the name given to the son of the prophet Isaiah. The name, which means "swift is booty, speedy is prey," was a prophetic message about the impending Assyrian invasion of Syria and Israel. God instructed Isaiah to write this name on a large scroll and have it witnessed by reliable people. When Isaiah's wife, the prophetess, conceived and gave birth to a son, God commanded Isaiah to name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. The child's name was a sign that before he would be old enough to say "father" or "mother," the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria would be carried away by the king of Assyria (Isa.8.1, 3).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Parents
- Isaiah
- Siblings
- Shear-jashub
Appears in Scripture
Named in 2 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.