Isaiah 8:2

And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record,.... Not his marriage, nor the birth of his son, nor the name he gave him, but the prophecy written in the roll, concerning the spoiling of Syria and

And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. I took unto me faithful witnesses to record - `The Lord said to me that I should take,' etc.

Persons of unquestionable reputation, who should bear witness that the following name and prophecy was written and published by me, according to God’ s command.

Isaiah 8:2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.Ver. 2. And I took unto me faithful witnesses.] So they might be, and yet not godly men; as Galba and our Richard III were said to be bad men, but yet good princes. Some think that this Uriah was the same with him that brought in the altar of Damascus. He had been better perhaps, but at last revolted; as did Demas, of whom Dorotheus saith that he became a priest in an idol temple at Thessalonica; and Damascen, who turned Mohammedan, as some write. Zechariah, the other witness, was a man of great eminence, as being grandfather, by the mother’ s side, to good Hezekiah.

(2) And I took unto me faithful witnesses.—That the prophet’s challenge to his gainsayers might be made more emphatic, the setting-up of the tablet is to be formally attested. And the witnesses whom the prophet calls were probably men of high position, among those who had been foremost in advising the alliance with Assyria. Of Uriah or Urijah, the priest, we know that he complied with the king’s desire to introduce an altar after the pattern which he had seen at Damascus (2 Kings 16:10-11). Of Zechariah we know nothing; but the name was a priestly one (2 Chronicles 24:20), and it has been conjectured, from his association with Isaiah, that he may have been the writer of a section of the book that bears the name of a later Zechariah (Zechariah 9-12), which bears traces of being of a much earlier date than the rest of the book. The combination of “Zachariah, son of Jeberechiah” reminds us of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, and points to a priestly family. (See Note on Matthew 23:35.) In 2 Chronicles 29:13 the name appears as belonging to the Asaph section of the Levites. A more probable view is that he was identical with the father of the queen then reigning, and was therefore the grandfather of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:1). Probably, looking to the prophet’s habit of tracing auguries in names, the two witnesses may have been partly chosen for the significance of those which they bore, Uriah, i.e., “Jah is my light,” Zechariah, i.e., “Jah will remember,” each of which comes in with a special appropriateness.

2. And I took] The Hebr. pointing gives and I will take (as in R.V.). The speaker is still Jehovah. The LXX. and other old versions have the imperative (“and take for me”) which, as addressed to the prophet, reads more naturally. Uriah the priest is mentioned in 2 Kings 16:10 ff.; Zechariah is unknown, although the name occurs in the nearly contemporary notices of 2 Chronicles 26:5; 2 Chronicles 29:13. He has even been identified, somewhat rashly, with the author of Zechariah 9-11 on the ground of Zec 1:1. It is not to be inferred that the two men were intimate friends of Isaiah, still less that they belonged to the band of his disciples (Isaiah 8:16); they are called to witness simply as responsible public persons, trusted by the people.

And I took unto me faithful witnesses - What was the precise object in calling in these witnesses is not known. Some have supposed that it was to bear testimony to the marriage of the prophet at that time.

2. Uriah the priest — The same that was sent for to Damascus by Ahaz to take a complete pattern of a heathen altar which the king desired to be erected in the temple at Jerusalem. 2 Kings 16:10.