"Plays on names"

This chapter, like others in the same prophet, is full of plays on names; by which the attention of the living was arrested, and knowledge hidden for the generations to come, who should arise to witness the fulfilment of the prophet’s words. Thus Azubah—Forsaken, was the name of Asa’s queen, the mother of Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:42). Her name applies to the Holy City during the long time of the “great forsaking” (Azubah, Isa. 6:12). We know nothing of her character; but if it was anything like that of Maachah, Asa’s mother (2 Chron. 15:16) there may be a correspondence between the name and the cause of the “forsaking.” The final promise of this chapter is that Jerusalem shall be called “a city not forsaken.”
Then again in the days of Hezekiah = Yah is Strength, when Isaiah uttered these words, his queen was named Hephzibah = My Delight is in Her (2 Kings 21:1). She was the mother of Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and made the people “do worse than the heathen.” Her name, however, applies to the city in the time of restoration when “Yahweh delighteth in her.” Hezekiah was a good King, and it is probable that he was supported in his energetic suppression of idolatry and restoration of the worship of Yahweh, by Hephzibah his Queen.


The Ministry of the Prophets: Isaiah (p 718). The Publishing Commitee, Christadelphian Old Paths Ecclesia.