Lives of Scripture

Shear-jashub, whose Hebrew name means "a remnant will return," was the son of the prophet Isaiah. During the Syro-Ephraimite crisis -- when King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel allied against Judah and threatened to depose King Ahaz -- the LORD sent Isaiah to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller's field, and instructed him to bring his son along: "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub" (Isaiah 7:1-3). The boy is not recorded as saying or doing anything himself; his presence was the message. His name embodied both a warning and a promise built into the same word -- "remnant" implies that judgment was coming and much would be lost, while "will return" promised that God would not let His people be wiped out entirely. Isaiah went on in that meeting to urge the frightened king to trust the LORD rather than seek Assyria's help, and offered Ahaz a sign, which Ahaz refused to ask for -- leading to the well-known Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah later names another son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, using the same method of turning a child's name itself into a public, standing prophetic sign (Isaiah 8:1-4, 18).