Maher-shalal-hash-baz

Maher-shalal-hash-baz (meaning plunder hastens, spoil speeds or making speed to the spoil) was the name God commanded Isaiah to give to his son born of the prophetess, as a sign that before the child could say "father" or "mother," the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria would be carried away by the king of Assyria (Isaiah 8:1–4). The name itself was first written publicly on a large tablet with witnesses — a written prophecy preserved before fulfillment — then confirmed by the child's birth and name inscription. The prophecy was fulfilled within a few years when Tiglath-pileser III carried away Syria and much of the northern kingdom.

Maher-shalal-hash-baz is one of the longest names in Scripture and functions as a portable prophetic sign: everywhere the child went, the name proclaimed the imminence of Assyrian conquest. He stands alongside Isaiah's son Shear-jashub ("a remnant shall return," Isaiah 7:3) and Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) as the prophetic children whose names together encapsulate Isaiah's message of judgment and hope for the Syro-Ephraimite crisis period.