Isaiah 8:2

2 et adhibui mihi testes fideles Uriam sacerdotem et Zacchariam filium Barachiae

Isaiah 8:2 Meaning and Commentary

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 Israel, in a very short time; that so, when it came to pass, it might be a clear and certain point that it had been foretold by him: Uriah the priest;
of whom mention is made in ( 2 Kings 16:10 ) which some object to, because he proved a wicked man, and obeyed the king's command, contrary to the law of God, in building an altar according to the form of one at Damascus; but to this it is replied, that it was before this happened that Isaiah took him to be a witness; and besides, because of the authority of his office, and his familiarity with Ahaz, he must be allowed to be a proper and pertinent person to bear testimony in this case. Some indeed, and so the Jewish commentators, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Abarbinel, would have Uriah the prophet meant, who prophesied in the times of Jehoiakim, and was slain by him, ( Jeremiah 26:20-23 ) to which it is objected, that he was no priest, as this was and, besides, was not born at this time; it was a hundred and forty years after that he lived: and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah;
this was Zechariah the prophet, as the Targum, and all the Jewish writers, say F15; who lived in the times of Darius, which was two hundred and forty years after this; but most likely this Zechariah is he who was Ahaz's wife's father, ( 2 Kings 18:2 ) or rather, as Vitringa thinks, Zechariah a Levite, a son of Asaph, ( 2 Chronicles 29:13 ) though there are some learned men F16, who think the two prophets Uriah and Zechariah are meant, though then unborn; who prophesied of the like or same things as Isaiah did; and so were faithful witnesses of his prophecy, as of the calamities that should come on the land, the restitution of it to its former fruitfulness, and the coming of the Messiah; nor is the observation of Abarbinel to be despised, taken from the ancient Jews, that these are the words, not of the prophet, but of God himself; as also that they are to be read in the future tense, "and I will take to me"


FOOTNOTES:

F15 T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 24. 2.
F16 Cocceius, Witsius, Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1. l. 1. c. 20. sect. 8, 9, 10.

Isaiah 8:2 In-Context

1 et dixit Dominus ad me sume tibi librum grandem et scribe in eo stilo hominis Velociter spolia detrahe Cito praedare
2 et adhibui mihi testes fideles Uriam sacerdotem et Zacchariam filium Barachiae
3 et accessi ad prophetissam et concepit et peperit filium et dixit Dominus ad me voca nomen eius Adcelera spolia detrahere Festina praedari
4 quia antequam sciat puer vocare patrem suum et matrem suam auferetur fortitudo Damasci et spolia Samariae coram rege Assyriorum
5 et adiecit Dominus loqui ad me adhuc dicens
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.