| Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 8:1-8 The prophet is to write on a large roll, or on a metal tablet, words which meant, Make speed to spoil, hasten to the prey: pointing out that the Assyrian army should come with speed, and make great spoil. Very soon the riches of Damascus and of Samaria, cities then secure and formidable, shall be taken away by the king of Assyria. The prophet pleads with the promised Messiah, who should appear in that land in the fulness of time, and, therefore, as God, would preserve it in the mean time. As a gentle brook is an apt emblem of a mild government, so an overflowing torrent represents a conqueror and tyrant. The invader's success was also described by a bird of prey, stretching its wings over the whole land. Those who reject Christ, will find that what they call liberty is the basest slavery. But no enemy shall pluck the believer out of Emmanuel's hand, or deprive him of his heavenly inheritance.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - And I took unto me; rather, and I will have taken for me. It is still God who is speaking. Uriah the priest. Probably the high priest of the time, mentioned in 2 Kings 16:10-16, as the ready tool of Ahaz at a later date. Though a bad man, he may have been a trustworthy witness to a fact. Zechariah. Perhaps the father of Abi or Abijah, Ahaz's queen (2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chronicles 29:1). It would serve to call public attention still more to the tablet, if it bore the names of two such eminent persons as witnesses.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd 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 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 (o); 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 (p), 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", &c. (o) T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 24. 2.((p) Cocceius, Witsius, Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1. l. 1. c. 20. sect. 8, 9, 10.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary2. I took—rather, "The Lord said to me, that I should take," &c. [Maurer]. Uriah—an accomplice of Ahaz in idolatry, and therefore a witness not likely to assist the prophet of God in getting up a prophecy after the event (2Ki 16:10). The witnesses were in order that when the event should come, they might testify that the tablet containing the prophecy had been inscribed with it at the time that it professed. Zechariah—(2Ch 29:13).
Isaiah 8:2 Parallel Commentaries Isaiah 8:2 NIV
Isaiah 8:2 NLT
Isaiah 8:2 ESV
Isaiah 8:2 NASB
Isaiah 8:2 KJV Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible | 
