Isaiah family’s name changing reflects Divine game changing

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

  

“Isaiah like Hosea had three known children, all of whose names were prophetic”.

Charles Boutflower

 

 

Isaiah, Hosea, whose names are of very similar meaning, being basically derived from the same Hebrew root for ‘salvation’, יֵ֫שַׁע

 

- “Isaiah” (Hebrew יְשַׁעְיָהוּ , Yeshâ‘yâhû) signifies: “Yahweh (the Lord) is salvation”.

- “Hosea” (Hebrew הוֹשֵׁעַ) means practically the same: “Yahweh (the Lord) is saviour”.

 

was, in fact, one and the same prophet.

 

Hosea’s/Isaiah’s Family

 

Though no doubt young, the prophet was given the strange command by God to marry an ‘unfaithful’ woman:

 

“‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the Lord’. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim …” (Hosea 1:2-3). Biblical scholars have agonised over the type of woman this Gomer might have been: adulteress? harlot? temple-prostitute? But essentially the clue is to be found in the statement above that she was a citizen of the ‘land of great harlotry’: namely, the northern kingdom of Israel.

 

A further likeness between Isaiah and Hosea, central to this article, was the fact that ‘their names’ and those of ‘their’ children were meant to be, in their meanings, prophetic signs.

 

- The prophet Isaiah tells us: “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and portents ...” (Isaiah 8:18).

- Similarly, the names of the children of the prophet Hosea were meant to be prophetic (Hosea 1:4, 6, 9).

 

Charles Boutflower, who had written perceptively on Isaiah’s children, had rightly noted the prophetic significance of their names and those of Hosea’s children, without however connecting Isaiah and Hosea as one: “Isaiah like Hosea had three known children, all of whose names were prophetic” (The Book of Isaiah I-XXXIX, 1930, p. 49).

 

Previously, I had written:

 

It is most unlikely, one would have to think, to have two great prophets operating contemporaneously over such a substantial period of time, and each having three children whose names were prophetic.

The fact is, I believe, that this was just the one prophet, who may possibly have had six children in all. (This still needs to be sorted out, however).

 

Just today (14^th August, 2026), though, I have come to think that at least one of these children was a duplicate.

I intend to write an article on this, Deo volente.

 

Stuart Irvine has, in the course of his detailed study of the so-called Isaianic Denkschrift [‘personal memoir’] (Isaiah 6:1-9:6) of the Syro-Ephraïmitic crisis, written extensively on the chronological significance of Isaiah’s children and their names in connection with this crisis for Judah.

 

I also appreciate Stuart Irvine’s concern for scholars to study the prophets (thus Isaiah) according to the “historical events and politics” of their time….. (Isaiah, Ahaz, and the Syro-Ephraimitic Crisis, Society of Biblical Literature, Dissertation Series No. 123, Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1990).

 

What of Isaiah’s other names, such as Nahum?

 

In various articles, now, e.g. in my detailed:

 

De-coding Jonah

 

(3) De-coding Jonah

 

I have multi-identified the Simeonite prophet Isaiah.

 

Apart from his Isaiah like names: Hosea; Uzziah (Book of Judith); Asaiah (reign of king Josiah); and Uriah (Urijah), martyred at the command of king Jehoiakim (= Manasseh) of Judah, Isaiah was also the prophet Jonah.

 

Another major identification of Isaiah that I have proposed is with the differently named (but Jonah-related, cf. Tobit 14:4) Nahum, who prophesied about Assyria.

See e.g. my articles:

 

Not so obscure prophet Nahum

 

(DOC) Not so obscure prophet Nahum | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu

 

Prophet Nahum as Isaiah Comforted

 

(3) Prophet Nahum as Isaiah Comforted

 

Now, if names mean anything – and we know that, in the case of the prophet Isaiah, names mean everything – then “Nahum” (Hebrew נַחוּם), too, must have a particular relevance to a new phase in the long life of the prophet, Isaiah, especially in relation to Israel.

 

The happy new phase coincides with the wonderful Isaiah 40, of which we read:

Isaiah 40 RSVCE - God’s People Are Comforted - Comfort, - Bible Gateway

“Here begins the “Book of the Consolation of Israel,” as it has been beautifully called”.

 

The chapter begins (40:1) with what virtually amounts to Isaiah’s new name: Nahum, meaning “consolation”. Thus: “Console, console, My people, says your God …”.

(נַחֲמוּ נַחֲמוּ, עַמִּי--יֹאמַר, אֱלֹהֵיכֶם) The repeated Hebrew word here, na-ḥă-mū, is of the same root as Isaiah’s new name, Nahum.

 

The next verse tells us what this new phase was to be in the life of Israel (v. 2):

 

‘…. proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins’.

 

Faithless Israelites scared of a few giants

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

 

 

‘We saw Nephilim there. (The descendants of Anak are Nephilim.) We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them’.

 

Numbers 13:33

 

Only Jesus Christ can lead us into the Promised Land (Acts 4:12): “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”.

 

Metaphorically speaking, the Israelites would be led into the Promised Land by a Jesus - at least, by a warrior with a Jesus name, Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), meaning “The Lord will save”. The name Jesus (יֵשׁוּעַ) means, similarly, “He will save”.

 

Metaphorically, again, it would not have been fitting for Moses to have led the Israelites into the Promised Land because Moses embodied the Law (Torah), and the Law alone was never sufficient to save Israel (cf. Romans 7:13-24).

 

As Ike Clanton said to Wyatt Earp, ‘Law don’t go around here, Kansas Law Dog’.

 

However, before Joshua can even begin his assault on the fortified Early Bronze III (EB III) cities of the land of Canaan, he will encounter the real leader of the army of Israel, a prefigurement of Jesus Christ – the Old Testament ever seeking its fulfilment in the New (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 129): “Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen”.

 

Joshua 5:13-15:

 

When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, ‘Are you friend or foe?’

‘Neither one’, he replied. ‘I am the commander of the Lord’s army’.

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. ‘I am at your command’, Joshua said. ‘What do you want your servant to do?’

The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy’. And Joshua did as he was told.

 

Joshua and Caleb

 

All but two persons from amongst the horde of adult Middle Bronze I (MBI) people who had departed from the land of Egypt under the leadership of Moses will ultimately enter into the Promised Land: namely, Joshua and Caleb.

The number of those who had marched off into the desert wilderness appears to have been wildly exaggerated, due to a rigid interpretation of the Hebrew word, elef (אֶלֶף), as “thousand”. Assuredly “thousand” is one of the word’s various meanings - but when a translation leads to a situation that greatly stretches common sense, one ought to consider searching for a different meaning.

Sadly though, as we well know, ‘common sense is not so common’ (Voltaire).

 

The usual estimation of two million Israelites, 600,000 fighting men, wandering in a moon-scape like, waterless, desert, is well beyond the realms of likelihood.

 

The number was probably closer to 60,000 in total - still a great horde.

 

Had Israel really been able to boast of 600,000 fighting men, the same size as Napoleon’s Grande Armée, then they would have been able to laugh at any opposition – giants included.

 

Moses, stationed at Kadesh-barnea, had selected 12 men to enter into, and to spy out, the Promised Land - one man from each of the 12 tribes of Israel (Numbers 13:1-29).

 

Like the 12 Apostles commissioned by Jesus Christ, these chosen leaders of Israel were meant to prepare the way for the ultimate Conquest of the land.

 

However, the faithless spies - all but Joshua and Caleb - returned quaking in their sandals. Yes, here was a land flowing with milk and honey, with abundant grapes, too, pomegranates and figs, but we saw the Anakim, giants who made us seem as small as grasshoppers.

 

These giants had turned our Hebrew warriors into a heap of worriers.

 

(Vv. 27-29): “This is what they reported to Moses: ‘We went to the land where you sent us. It really is a land flowing with milk and honey. Here’s some of its fruit. But the people who live there are strong, and the cities have walls and are very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountain region. And the Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and all along the Jordan River’.

 

Joshua (from Ephraim) and Caleb (from Judah), though, were having none of it.

They, like the young David when confronted with the giant Goliath, were convinced that they could win the victory with the Lord on their side. Big is not always better.

They had sufficient faith - the ten other Israelite spies did not.

 

(Vv. 30-33) “Caleb told the people to be quiet and listen to Moses. Caleb said, ‘Let’s go now and take possession of the land. We should be more than able to conquer it’.

But the men who had gone with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people! They’re too strong for us!’ So they began to spread lies among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored is one that devours those who live there. All the people we saw there are very tall. We saw Nephilim there. (The descendants of Anak are Nephilim.) We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that’s how we must have looked to them’.”

 

Owing to their faith, the pair, Joshua and Caleb, incredibly, would be the only ones amongst the whole mass of adult people that had departed from Egypt who would ultimately enter the Promised Land, after 40 years of wandering. For the Lord had concluded a marvellous dialogue with Moses (and Aaron) by declaring (v. 34): ‘For 40 days you explored the land. So for 40 years—one year for each day—you will suffer for your sins and know what it means for Me to be against you’. 

 

That ‘wandering’, though, needs to be put into perspective.

 

Israel was not constantly roaming aimlessly around the Sinai and Negev deserts, but was situated, for the most part, at the oasis of Kadesh Barnea (Tell el-Qudeirat), where, not surprisingly, there is to be found a large concentration of MBI sites:

 

… there is a large concentration of sites along the geomorphic line that runs from the Kadesh-Barnea region to north of Dimona. ….   

….

The concentration of MBI sites in the relatively fertile district east of Kadesh-Barnea recalls the tradition that the Israelites encamped near this oasis for 38 of their 40 years of wandering after leaving Egypt (Deuteronomy 1:46).

(Rudolph Cohen, “The Mysterious MBI People”, BAR, July/August 1983).

 

 

 

Evidence for the prophet Isaiah during the reign of King Josiah

 

 

by

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

It seems ridiculous, doesn’t it, the prophet Isaiah, considered to have been martyred during the reign of King Manasseh of Judah (d. c. 643 BC, conventional dating), yet somehow still functioning during the reign of King Josiah of Judah (c. 640-609 BC)?

 

How to explain this?

 

That Isaiah was, with his father, Amos (Amoz) (Isaiah 1:1), or Micah, a Simeonite – unlike the typical prophets of Israel (cf. Amos 7:14) – I have now well established in articles such as:

 

God can raise up prophets at will - even from a shepherd of Simeon

 

(5) God can raise up prophets at will - even from a shepherd of Simeon

 

Now, there was a Simeonite leader whose name was Asaiah (1 Chronicles 4:36), and his name is the same as King Josiah’s personal secretary, “Asaiah, servant of the king” (עֲשָׂיָה עֶבֶד-הַמֶּלֶךְ). This was a very high office: Topical Bible: The King of Israel's Servants

“The term "The King of Israel's Servants" refers to those individuals who served the monarchs of the ancient kingdom of Israel. These servants played various roles, ranging from military leaders and advisors to household managers and personal attendants. Their duties and influence varied depending on their position and the king they served”.

 

And his name was found last year (2025) inscribed on a seal.

 

But before we get to that wonderful discovery (see article below), I need briefly to explain how the prophet Isaiah, of the reigns of King Hezekiah and Manasseh, could be the same as the Asaiah who was a high official serving King Josiah.

 

Isaiah was all at once, as I have shown: the prophet Hosea, and the Simeonite Uzziah of the Book of Judith (6:15, “Uzziah, son of Micah of the tribe of Simeon …”), on duty in N. Israel; also Jonah/Nahum, cf. Tobit 14:4 (reputed to be a Simeonite).  

 

Only, though, with my folding of the reforming king, Hezekiah, into the reforming king, Josiah, and the wicked son, Manasseh, into the wicked son, Jehoiakim:

 

Manasseh - Jehoiakim

 

(5) Manasseh - Jehoiakim

 

Advantages if Hezekiah’s son Manasseh is identified with Josiah’s son Jehoiakim

 

(5) Advantages if Hezekiah’s son Manasseh is identified with Josiah's son Jehoiakim

 

can any further necessary connections of Isaiah - also the martyred Isaiah (reign of Manasseh) - with Asaiah - also the martyred Uriah/Urijah (reign of Jehoiakim) (Jeremiah 26:20-23) - be established. 

 

Conclusion

 

The Simeonite prophet, Isaiah, was the same person as the king’s high official, Asaiah.

 

Now to the exciting discovery of that seal:

Has the Name of King Josiah’s Trusted Official Been Found on an Ancient Sealing? - The Temple Mount Sifting Project

 

Has the Name of King Josiah’s Trusted Official Been Found on an Ancient Sealing?

A rare seal impression on clay bearing the Hebrew name “Yed[a‛]yah (son of) Asayahu,” has recently been uncovered in the sifting. This exciting discovery raises the intriguing possibility of a direct link to a well-known biblical story: the finding of a sacred biblical law scroll during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, just years before the destruction of Jerusalem’s First Temple.

…

Discovery and the Decoding of the Sealing

 

… archaeologist Mordechai Ehrlich discovered a rare and exceptionally well-preserved clay sealing, impressed by a stamp seal inscribed with ancient Hebrew letters.

 

Since the discovery of the sealing, an intensive, fast-track study has been conducted …. The researchers—epigrapher Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich and Zachi Dvira—have fully deciphered the inscription. They read it as follows:

 

“Belonging to Yed[a‛]yah (son of) Asayahu.”  – ליד[ע]יה (בן) עשיהו

 

Marks on the back of the artifact indicate it was used as a sealing on a bag or storage container. Remarkably, the sealing still retains a clear fingerprint, presumably left by the ancient official who once owned it. According to the style of writing, the sealing dates to the late First Temple period (approximately the late-7th century BCE to the early-6th century BCE).

 

Who was Yeda‛yah, Son of Asayahu?

 

The names inscribed on the sealing are reminiscent of famous figures described in the Hebrew Bible. About 2,600 years ago, King Josiah of Judah ordered repairs made to the Temple in Jerusalem. During these repairs, workers discovered an ancient sacred scroll (Sefer haTorah), likely the Pentateuch book of Deuteronomy (2 Kings 22:12; 2 Chronicles 34:20). When the royal scribe read the scroll to King Josiah, its warnings about the people’s sins and impending divine punishment deeply alarmed the king.

 

Josiah then dispatched trusted officials to seek divine counsel from the prophetess Huldah, who foretold Jerusalem’s future destruction but assured Josiah that he personally would not live to witness it.

 

Among Josiah’s trusted envoys was a senior official named Asayahu [Asaiah], described as “the king’s servant.” Given his prominent role, it is reasonable to assume that his son, Yeda‛yah, may have also served in a prominent position, either at the same time or shortly thereafter.

 

Could the newly discovered sealing belonging to “Yeda‛yah son of Asayahu” indeed reference the son of King Josiah’s trusted official?