2 Nephi 18:3

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 18:3

3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: Call his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

Quotes for Discussion

Prophetess

The Isaiah that has floated before our eyes has been commonly a stately form treading the upper circles, walking amid courts and breathing the air of kings. The dignity of his rhythm has seemed incompatible with a modest sphere; the strength of his denunciations has appeared to imply the voice of one who moved upon the mountains. But look beneath the surface and you will change your view. There will stand before you a new Isaiah, a humble-minded Isaiah, an Isaiah whose heart is in the valley. His very house was in the valley—in the lower part of Jerusalem. Men called the spot “the Valley of Vision”—perhaps by way of a sneer….Down in his Valley of Vision Isaiah lived, far from the madding crowd—divorced from public sympathy, almost in social ostracism. But not divorced from family life. No—there the brightness comes in. Isaiah had the joy of wedded happiness. He had a wife whose mind was in tune with his own. She was familiarly called “the prophetess”—a great compliment to her, and a great testimony to her unity with her husband. And there were two sons born to them…sons whose names he had fondly recorded.

George Matheson, The Old Testament and the Fine Arts, comp. Cynthia Pearl Maus [New York: Harper & Row, 1954], 562

The prophetess, like her husband, possessed a testimony of Jesus, for “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). The title prophetess “was given to Isaiah’s wife because she was literally the bearer of the Lord’s word, incarnate in her son.” The fulfillment of the sign given to King Ahaz from the Lord came through Isaiah’s wife and the birth of her son Maher-shalal-hash-baz (7:14). She typified the virgin Mary (7:14; see also Table 1, page 73).

Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the son of Isaiah and the prophetess, is a type of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God (7:14-16).

Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, 82