Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 8:2

"and I will take unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah." — Isaiah 8:2 (ASV)

And I took unto me faithful witnesses. —So that the prophet’s challenge to his opponents might be made more emphatic, the setting-up of the tablet was to be formally attested. The witnesses whom the prophet called 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 according to the pattern 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 therefore the grandfather of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:1).

Probably, considering the prophet’s habit of tracing significance in names, the two witnesses may have been partly chosen for the meaning of the names they bore: Uriah, i.e., “Jah is my light,” and Zechariah, i.e., “Jah will remember.” Each of these names possesses a special appropriateness.