And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
Isaiah took Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah as faithful witnesses to attest the prophetic message. The taking of witnesses belonged to the time of King Ahaz, a time of sin and moral and physical darkness when God's people were on the verge of destruction. Even in that dark condition there were rays of light and hope for the future.
The appointment of the witnesses belonged to a prediction of the ruin of Damascus and Samaria by the king of Assyria. That ruin was expected within about three years, before the child could say My father or My mother. It stands in the account of the naming of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, a Bible name of the kind Puritans gave to their children when rejecting heathen names.
The Zechariah son of Jeberechiah named as witness was a faithful witness in Isaiah's day, earlier than Zechariah the prophet of the restoration contemporary with Haggai in 520 and 518 B.C. That earlier Zechariah wrote Zechariah 9 to 14, which have a different historical setting and a different style from Zechariah 1 to 8. He was probably the same Zechariah who understood visions of God in Uzziah's time. This earlier Zechariah may have written prophecies later attributed to the prophet Zechariah, including passages quoted under Jeremiah's name, with the similar names confused by a careless transcription of the verse.
The verse belongs to the account of a conspiracy against Judah, and the conspiracies of that time serve as types of conspiracies that will arise in the last days. It is part of Isaiah 8's emphatic warning against religious confederacies. That warning is connected with the religious world's preparation for Armageddon.
Isaiah took Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah as faithful witnesses to attest the prophetic message. The taking of witnesses belonged to the time of King Ahaz, a time of sin and moral and physical darkness when God's people were on the verge of destruction. Even in that dark condition there were rays of light and hope for the future.
The appointment of the witnesses belonged to a prediction of the ruin of Damascus and Samaria by the king of Assyria. That ruin was expected within about three years, before the child could say My father or My mother. It stands in the account of the naming of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, a Bible name of the kind Puritans gave to their children when rejecting heathen names.
The Zechariah son of Jeberechiah named as witness was a faithful witness in Isaiah's day, earlier than Zechariah the prophet of the restoration contemporary with Haggai in 520 and 518 B.C. That earlier Zechariah wrote Zechariah 9 to 14, which have a different historical setting and a different style from Zechariah 1 to 8. He was probably the same Zechariah who understood visions of God in Uzziah's time. This earlier Zechariah may have written prophecies later attributed to the prophet Zechariah, including passages quoted under Jeremiah's name, with the similar names confused by a careless transcription of the verse.
The verse belongs to the account of a conspiracy against Judah, and the conspiracies of that time serve as types of conspiracies that will arise in the last days. It is part of Isaiah 8's emphatic warning against religious confederacies. That warning is connected with the religious world's preparation for Armageddon.