Note 3 — ISAIAH. (continued 6)

Faithful witnesses. Or, sure witnesses; whose testimony none would be able to gainsay: partly, because of their rank, but still more, it would seem, from their being adherents of Ahaz. For “Uriah the priest” can scarcely be any other than the one who made the Syrian altar after the description sent him from Damascus by Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 10–16); thereby (as Mr. Birks notices) furnishing incontrovertible evidence of the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prediction. Zechariah may have been Ahaz’s own father-in-law (2 Chron. xxix. 1).—Kay.