מַהֵר שָׁלָל חָשׁ בַּז

From the study of Isaiah 8:1

Range of meaning

Four words made into a name. Maher means 'hurry, quick' (from m-h-r, 'hasten'). Shalal is 'spoil' taken in war. Ḥash means 'hurries, is quick' (from ḥush). Baz is 'booty, prey' (from bazaz, 'plunder'). It can be read as two commands, 'Hurry, spoil! Hasten, plunder!', or as a description, 'Swift is the spoil, speedy the prey'. It is the longest personal name in the Hebrew Bible.

Against the English

Most English versions transliterate it, so readers hear only an exotic name. NASB translates it ('Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey'). YLT does too ('To haste spoil, enjoy prey'). The meaning was the entire message.

How it drifted

Transliteration keeps the sound and loses the sense. Hebrew hearers understood it at once, the way an English speaker would understand a child named 'Loot-Fast-Plunder-Soon'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Shalal and baz appear together elsewhere as a fixed pair for war plunder (Isaiah 10:6: 'to take spoil and seize plunder'; Ezekiel 29:19; 38:12-13). Some Egyptologists have proposed a similar Egyptian military expression, roughly 'hurry, plunder', which would make the name sound like a battlefield cry. That proposal is uncertain. The Septuagint translates the meaning ('to make plunder of spoils swiftly, for it is at hand'), and so does the Vulgate ('quickly drag off spoils, swiftly take prey').