(Second Version) Top 70 Searched Questions About Isaiah in The Book of Mormon
Limited mainly to Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus, Book of Mormon prophets quote many chapters from the prophecies of Isaiah in their entirety in support of what they themselves saw would occur at Israel’s end-time restoration. The fact that many of these Isaiah chapters also deal with events relating to Isaiah’s day means that in their eyes those prophecies additionally apply to the end-time. Their historical relevance—as Isaiah himself declares (Isaiah 42:9)—wasn’t as important as their latter-day relevance as the ancient events he described foreshadow end-time events.
Book of Mormon prophets who saw our day earnestly anticipated the time when their descendants and the whole house of Israel would be restored to a belief in Christ, their Savior. As Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus speak about Israel’s restoration, therefore, they intertwine their own prophecies with those of Isaiah, who saw the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Using them as a scriptural foundation and jumping off point, they expound on Isaiah’s words, elucidating many of his prophecies within a context of the entire house of Israel’s end-time restoration.
In order of occurrence in the Book of Mormon appear Isaiah 48–49 (1 Nephi 20–21); Isaiah 2–14 (2 Nephi 12–24); Isaiah 50–51 (2 Nephi 7–8); Isaiah 53 (Mosiah 14); and Isaiah 54 (3 Nephi 22). Parts of Isaiah 29, 52, 55 are quoted in 2 Nephi 8:24–25; 9:50–51; 26:25; 27:3–6, 25–35; Mosiah 12:21–24; 15:29–31; 3 Nephi 16:18–20; 20:32–45; 21:10. While chapters 2–14 bring a decisive historical scenario to readers’ attention that repeats itself before the Lord’s coming in glory, chapters 48–55 highlight Isaiah’s prophecies of the house of Israel’s end-time restoration.
The difficulty of inscribing the largest book of prophecy on metal plates would have been formidable for anyone. Instead, Nephi and Jacob told their own tale that started the Book of Mormon. When relating their visions of Israel’s end-time restoration, however—including that of their own descendants—they turned to Isaiah. As Isaiah had already prophesied the substance of his great vision of “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10), Nephi and Jacob interwove what they had seen with those Isaiah chapters that most portrayed his end-time scenario.
The Book of Mormon’s use of past events to predict future ones mimics Isaiah. The sons of Mosiah’s “great and marvelous work” of converting the Lamanites, for example, presages the “great and marvelous work” of Israel’s end-time restoration by the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles that Isaiah predicts. The Nephites’ apostasy and “great and marvelous destruction” presages the apostasy and “great and marvelous destruction” of the end-time Gentiles, and so forth. Suffice to say that the Book of Mormon is firmly grounded in the words of Isaiah.
A chief obstacle to understanding the words of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon is its use of the King James Version of the Bible when quoting Isaiah. Its literalistic and inconsistent translation of Isaiah’s words presents an impediment to any reader. Secondly, Isaiah’s use of literary devices requires a knowledge of the “manner of the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:5)—of the tools needed to “search these things” (3 Nephi 23:1), not simply to read or study them. Third, searching Isaiah’s words requires a concerted personal effort in order to gain a true comprehension of end-time events.
Isaiah’s prophecies lay the groundwork for an expansive end-time scenario in the Book of Mormon. Nephi’s, Jacob’s, and Jesus’ own prophecies, as well as that of Zenos, are so closely interwoven with Isaiah’s as to form a singular tapestry that interconnects with all other end-time prophecy. Taking center stage in this end-time drama is the house of Israel’s return from a lost and dispersed condition to lands of inheritance in fulfillment of God’s covenants with their fathers. The role of Ephraimite Gentiles forms a key to the house of Israel’s restoration.
Because an accepted English translation of the Book of Isaiah existed in Joseph Smith’s day in the form of the King James Version, it was doubtless considered adequate for the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon. A new, innovative rendering would have created problems for persons vested in the KJV at that time. Because the translation process “by the gift and power of God” required a person beyond the veil who knew both languages to project lines of text into the seeing device, he may additionally have influenced use of the KJV’s Isaiah passages.
Recent renderings of the Bible have improved on the King James Version with some success. Translations such as the New King James Version and New International Version have taken advantage of much Hebrew and Greek scholarship since the KJV was published in 1611 A.D. For various reasons, however, no translation of Isaiah is perfect but each struggles with scribal errors, misspellings, misplaced words, and consistency in the translation of terms or key words. For that reason, we recommend the Isaiah Institute Translation of the Book of Isaiah.
Two main categories of people identify as “the Gentiles” in the Book of Mormon: (1) those who come from the old world to the new to inherit this land (1 Nephi 13:12–15); and (2) those among them called “the fulness of the Gentiles.” That expression comes from Jacob’s birthright blessing of Ephraim (Hebrew melo’ haggoyim; Genesis 48:19) and identifies spiritual kings and queens among end-time Ephraimite Gentiles who restore the house of Israel to a knowledge of Christ and to lands of inheritance (Isaiah 49:22–23; 1 Nephi 15:13; 2 Nephi 10:7–9; 3 Nephi 16:4).
Three groups of people identify as “the house of Israel” in the Book of Mormon: (1) the Jews; (2) Israel’s Ten Tribes; and (3) those called Lamanites today. These natural or ethnic lineages of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are those with whom God covenanted but who mostly fell away and were scattered among the nations before the time of Christ. Their end-time restoration—when assisted by the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles—fulfills God’s covenants with their ancestors (Isaiah 49:22–23; 1 Nephi 15:13–18; 2 Nephi 10:7–9; 29:12–14; Jacob 5:52–63).
Isaiah and the Hebrew prophets commonly call Israel’s God by the title “Jehovah of Hosts” when highlighting his divine power and authority. The King James Version of Isaiah that was adopted in the Book of Mormon translates the name Jehovah (yhvh) as “the Lord.” Because the word “hosts” (tzeva’ot) also means “armies,” this signifies that Jehovah commands the armies of heaven and earth: “Lift your eyes heavenward and see: Who formed these? He who brings forth their hosts by number, calling each one by name” (Isaiah 40:26; compare Isaiah 13:4–5).
The title Holy One of Israel that Isaiah and the prophets often apply to Israel’s God—which practice Nephi follows—reflects Jehovah’s utmost sanctity. Witness the seraphim whom Isaiah sees with Jehovah in the temple singing, “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:3). The title “Holy One of Israel” is thus intended to inspire God’s people to increase their own sanctity or consecration: “Then shall they who are left in Zion and they who remain in Jerusalem be called holy—all who were inscribed to be among the living at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 4:3).
The covenant God made with Abraham—that in his seed all kindreds of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1–3; 1 Nephi 15:18)—began a long process through which God would ultimately bless all his children with the “good news” of salvation through Jesus Christ. In the end, God would turn Israel’s scattering among the nations to good by blessing all people on earth who accepted the gospel with Israel’s covenant blessings. That fulfillment of the Lord’s covenant occurs as a central part of Isaiah’s end-time scenario (Isaiah 52:10; 1 Nephi 22:8–12).
Not all things Nephi sees in a great vision of the end from the beginning is he permitted to teach. Being forbidden to elaborate on specific end-time events (1 Nephi 14:28), he nevertheless points readers to Isaiah’s end-time scenario by quoting chapters of Isaiah that deal specifically with the Lord’s servant (Isaiah 48:14–16; 49:1–10; 1 Nephi 20:14–16; 21:1–10). Expounding on many end-time events based on the prophecies of Isaiah, Nephi cites God’s baring his “arm”—his servant—as the key event that sets Israel’s restoration in motion (1 Nephi 22:10–29).
As there exists no context for “out of the waters of baptism” in the Book of Isaiah, this phrase must have been added to the first verse of Isaiah 48 as quoted in 1 Nephi 20. A scribal error in the form of a missing letter most likely accounts for a change from the Hebrew me’ei yehudah (“the loins/bowels of Judah”) to mei yehudah (“the waters of Judah”) in Isaiah 48:1. The term me’ei—a word link—appears again in verse 19, suggesting that the people’s hypocrisy in not declaring Isaiah’s vision predisposes them to God’s wrath (Isaiah 48:6–19; 1 Nephi 20:6–19).
Instances of additional words or phrases in the Isaiah chapters of the Book of Mormon almost never reflect ones original to Isaiah. The Book of Isaiah’s own internal checks and balances in the form of word links, key words, literary devices, parallelisms, structural patterns, recurring themes, and so forth, evidence a tightly knit fabric in which every part is accounted for within the whole. Rather, Book of Mormon additions to Isaiah passages mostly work back from the King James Version of Isaiah in often problematic attempts to make it more intelligible.
In the larger context of Isaiah 48–49, which Nephi quotes in 1 Nephi 20–21, this verse occurs in a short passage describing God’s end-time servant (1 Nephi 20:14–16). That theme is more fully picked up in Isaiah 49:1–9 (1 Nephi 21:1–9), which covers the servant’s mission of restoring the house of Israel. The idea of being “beloved” of the Lord has counterparts in John the “beloved,” the three “beloved” Nephite disciples, and all who attain the spiritual level of translated beings. Nephi’s quoting these passages covers indirectly what he was “forbidden” to say directly.
According to Nephi and Jacob, who quote Isaiah, the “isles of the sea” identify one of the key places God scattered the house of Israel when they broke his covenant anciently (1 Nephi 22:4; 2 Nephi 10:20–21). At the same time, they also allude to Israel’s end-time return from “the isles of the sea” to lands of inheritance when assisted by the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles (2 Nephi 10:7–9; 21:11–12; 29:7–8). Citing Isaiah 11:10–12, Nephi and Jacob anticipate Israel’s return from the isles and from the four directions of the earth (2 Nephi 21:1–12; Jacob 6:2).
The Book of Isaiah’s layered structures and literary devices show that the historical parts of Isaiah’s prophecies additionally function as an allegory of an end-time scenario. In other words, as Jesus states, “all things that he [Isaiah] spake have been and shall be” (3 Nephi 23:3). Its dual fulfillments—one historical, the other end-time—enable the entire Book of Isaiah to be read as a single drama that ushers in the coming of Jehovah/Jesus to reign on the earth. Isaiah’s prophecy of a new exodus out of Babylon (Isaiah 48:20–21), therefore, describes a latter-day event.
The addition of essentially another verse to Isaiah 49:1 as quoted in 1 Nephi 21:1 parallels a prophetic pattern by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Both speak of the shepherds/pastors (ro‘im) of God’s people’s abusing and scattering his sheep. That creates the occasion for God to raise up his end-time servant David who gathers the house of Israel and leads them in a new exodus to lands of promise (Jeremiah 23:1–2, 5–8; Ezekiel 34:1–31). Less important is the origin of this added verse than that it too introduces God’s end-time servant who gathers the house of Israel.
God’s end-time servant, whom Isaiah describes as having a “mouth like a sharp sword” (Isaiah 49:2; 1 Nephi 21:2), is empowered to smite his enemies who persecute him when God reverses his circumstances. After being “marred” and then “healed” (Isaiah 52:14; 57:18–19; 3 Nephi 21:10), he is similarly empowered to “smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4; 2 Nephi 21:4). That divine attribute resembles Jehovah/Jesus’ own (Revelation 1:16; 19:15), as God likewise empowers him over his enemies.
Just as Jesus’ spiritual messianic role was largely hidden from people’s anticipation of a coming Messiah, so is God’s end-time servant’s temporal messianic role. This time, however, people’s expectations are reversed as God again tests their faith. While the Jews expected a temporal Messiah who would restore Israel, most people today anticipate solely the coming of Jesus. Quoting Isaiah to say what he himself was “forbidden” to say, Nephi apprises us of Jesus’ forerunner who restores the house of Israel and establishes the Zion to which Jesus comes.
Two Woman figures feature in the Book of Isaiah: (1) Jehovah’s current wife who proves unfaithful (Isaiah 50:1; 2 Nephi 7:1); and (2) his former wife whom he remarries (Isaiah 54:1–8; 3 Nephi 22:1–8). The Woman Zion—Israel’s natural lineages—who felt forsaken when she was exiled and banished (1 Nephi 21:14; Isaiah 49:14), is the one Jehovah remarries. Her sons and daughters are those the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles escort home and restore to promised lands (Isaiah 49:17–23; 60:1–11; 1 Nephi 21:17–23; 2 Nephi 6:6–7; 10:8–9).
The end-time “marvelous work” or “great and marvelous work” that appears throughout the Book of Mormon is twofold: (1) the house of Israel’s restoration that immediately precedes the coming of Jehovah/Jesus to reign in glory on the earth; and (2) the simultaneous destruction of the world’s unrepentant inhabitants after they are warned by God’s end-time servant. The verse in question forms part of a larger passage in which Nephi combines different prophecies of Isaiah to illustrate aspects of the house of Israel’s end-time restoration (1 Nephi 22:1–19).
The “arm” of the Lord in Isaiah 51:9 is one of two “arms” of God in the Book of Isaiah: (1) the arm of righteousness—God’s end-time servant, who exemplifies righteousness; and (2) the arm of salvation—Jehovah himself, who exemplifies salvation (Isaiah 33:2; 48:14–15; 51:5; 52:10). The term “arm” denotes divine intervention as the servant named Righteousness prepares the way for Jehovah’s coming as Salvation to reign on the earth (Isaiah 41:2; 46:12–13; 62:11). God’s people’s Righteousness—literal and figurative—precedes the coming of Salvation.
The word “awake” or “arise” (‘uri ‘uri) in Isaiah 51:9 (2 Nephi 8:9) signifies God’s calling and empowering his end-time servant. By restoring the house of Israel and establishing Zion, God’s servant named Righteousness prepares the way for Jehovah’s coming as Salvation (2 Nephi 8:1–8; Isaiah 51:8). The servant’s mission is to assist the spiritual category called Zion/Jerusalem to similarly “Awake and arise” to divine empowerment (Isaiah 52:1–2; 2 Nephi 8:24–25; 3 Nephi 20:36). Like the Ten Virgins, they must rouse themselves and prepare for their Savior.
As the mission of God’s endtime servant leads to a callout from Babylon or the world, many Isaiah passages associated with the servant feature a new exodus theme (Isaiah 11:10–16; 48:14–21; 49:8–12; 52:10–13; 1 Nephi 20:14–21; 21:8–12; 2 Nephi 21:10–16; 3 Nephi 20:35–43). The verse in question forms part of a passage that compares the new exodus to Israel’s exodus out of Egypt (Isaiah 51:9–11; 2 Nephi 8:9–11). In that context, Rahab represents Egypt and the dragon its pharaoh, suggesting that the end-time exodus will resemble Israel’s exodus in the past.
Nephi and Jacob frequently refer to the prophecy of Isaiah 49:22–23 about the role of spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles who restore the house of Israel to a knowledge of their Savior and to lands of inheritance (1 Nephi 15:12–17; 21:22–23; 22:6–12; 2 Nephi 6:5–7; 10:7–10, 18–19). Their hopes for their descendants—whom they knew would dwindle into a lost and fallen state—would depend on these Gentiles’ ministry to them. That these kings and queens would descend from the birthright tribe of Ephraim more fully rounds out God’s role for both.
The fact that Nephi includes Assyria’s conquest of the ancient world and apostasy of God’s people that preceded it among the Isaiah chapters he and Jacob quote verbatim (Isaiah 2–14; 2 Nephi 12–24) means that they too apply to the end-time just as Israel’s restoration does. Difficult to engrave on metal plates, these chapters weren’t simply of historical interest. Rather, they fill out much of Isaiah’s and the Book of Mormon’s end-time scenario of destruction of evildoers and deliverance of God’s elect in which an end-time “king of Assyria” plays a major role.
As the root of Jesse is “a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days” (Doctrine & Covenants 113:6), that is the very same role Isaiah applies to God’s end-time servant. Being “another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his lineage” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 339), he cannot be Jesus Christ, John the Revelator, or Joseph Smith but one who has yet to perform an earthly role as all men do.
In Isaiah’s day, “king of Babylon” was an honorary title Assyrian kings assumed who conquered Babylon. We confirm their single identity from word links that identify him as Isaiah’s king of Assyria. While he performs the selfsame role of conquering the world, he personifies God’s “anger” and “wrath” and serves as the “rod” and “staff” with which God punishes the wicked (Isaiah 10:5, 12–15; 13:5–13; 14:4–6; 2 Nephi 20:5, 12–15; 23:5–13; 24:4–6). Transposed to an end-time context, we may expect a world conqueror who assumes both figures’ character traits.
Nephi gives two keys needed for understanding the words of Isaiah: (1) the spirit of prophecy; and (2) letter of prophecy or “manner of the Jews” (2 Nephi 25:4–5). The fact that Nephi didn’t teach his people the “manner” or method the Jews used to prophesy or to interpret prophecy put them at a disadvantage. The reason he didn’t is because “their works were works of darkness” (2 Nephi 25:2). Indeed, it is conceivable that the literary tools required for analyzing the words of Isaiah such as hidden key words and codenames could lead to devious practices in a nation.
As “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10), people to whom the Holy Ghost testifies that Jesus is the Christ have a greater advantage in understanding Isaiah’s words than those who don’t. That vertical approach, however, is but one of two Nephi mentions in 2 Nephi 25:4–5, the other being the letter of prophecy or “manner of the Jews.” Also needed for the Spirit to testify of a truth is the horizontal, Jewish approach of analyzing literary features, those that contain their own prophetic message over and above what we read on the surface.
The Jewish “manner” or method of prophesying and interpreting prophecy that Nephi advocates in 2 Nephi 25:5 uses literary devices to convey as much prophetic information as possible in as few words as possible. Guided by the writing principle of “less is more,” prophets studied in “schools of the prophets” where they learned literary techniques to create prophecies within prophecies that required “searching” in order to glean their underlying message. To persons in tune with God’s Spirit who had eyes to see and ears to hear God could unfold his greater truths.
How Nephi prefaces what he predicts about circumstances leading to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and its sealed portion is key to what follows. By saying, “I give unto you a prophecy, according to the spirit which is in me,” and “I proceed with mine own prophecy” (2 Nephi 25:4, 7), he tells us that he isn’t simply going to expound on Isaiah’s words as usual—in this case about Isaiah’s prophecy of “a sealed book” in Isaiah 29:11. Instead, he borrows that idea to report what he saw in vision about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Word links confirm that the sealed book in Isaiah 29:11 is the Book of Isaiah, not the Book of Mormon. God had commanded Isaiah to “Write on tablets concerning them” and “record it in a book for the end-time!” (Isaiah 30:8). Because Isaiah’s words would not be easy to understand, Jesus made it a commandment “search” them diligently (3 Nephi 23:1). If his people did so, the day would come when “the deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind see out of gross darkness” (Isaiah 29:18) and men would “understand them” (2 Nephi 25:7–8).
Precepts of men consist of commonly held beliefs, interpretations, or ideas ostensibly derived from God’s revealed word but that in reality have no scriptural support. Instead of his people’s searching and analyzing the scriptures for what God reveals through them, they resort to proof-texting them to support personal ideas and opinions. Isaiah and Book of Mormon prophets point to “the wise and the learned” of the day, who “think they know of themselves,” as a main source of precepts of men (Isaiah 29:13–14; 44:25; 2 Nephi 9:28, 42; 27:25–26; 28:15).
When describing the end-time’s age of pride and wickedness he has seen in vision, Nephi asserts “they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men” (2 Nephi 28:14). In other words, those who lead the people—the shepherds and teachers—are misleading them into false beliefs. Relying on academics—the wise and learned—for answers, they “preach false doctrines” and “pervert the right way of the Lord” (2 Nephi 28:15).
Searching the context of “wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!”—the first of seven covenant curses on God’s end-time people (2 Nephi 28:24–32)—we find that they have been lulled into “carnal security” in which they assume “all is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth” as “the devil cheateth their souls and leadeth them carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21). The prosperous circumstances of God’s end-time people “in Zion” have blinded them to the changing times, catching them unawares of coming calamities now destined to follow in quick succession.
God’s end-time people in Zion’s assuming that “all is well” (2 Nephi 28:25) reflects a smug contentment that things are OK—that we are on a good path and that everything will turn out alright if we just continue doing what we are doing. Or not doing! Such self-satisfaction never occurs in persons who “seek to bring forth my Zion,” who “have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost” (1 Nephi 13:37) prompting them to accomplish their end-time mission of restoring the house of Israel to God’s covenant and to lands of inheritance (2 Nephi 29:1, 14).
When people’s course of action is founded on flawed principles, they sabotage their own ability to fulfill God’s will. The Holy Ghost can’t testify of the truth of a precept of men and empower anyone. A sequence of increasing rejections of God’s truth by his people “in Zion” traces their spiritual regression as they finally deny Christ (2 Nephi 28:24–32). From first rebuffing a truth when they hear it because a precept of men they accept contradicts it, they gradually condition themselves into rejecting the greater truths God reveals and even new records that come forth.
While Isaiah’s premise holds true of censuring God’s people for being fixated on the “line upon line” principle of learning—not moving on to obtaining personal divine revelation (Isaiah 28:9–13)—Nephi notes that “unto him that receiveth [line upon line] I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have” (2 Nephi 28:30). That God gives “line upon line, precept upon precept” in order to “try you and prove you herewith” (Doctrine & Covenant 98:12) thus illustrates a two-step process.
The seven “woes” or covenant curses God pronounces on his people “at ease in Zion” result from their rejecting “more” truth he desires to give them and on their putting their trust in men rather than God (2 Nephi 28:24, 30–31). As ultimately these end-time Gentiles “tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God,” they end up denying Christ when he manifests his “arm”—his servant”—to them (2 Nephi 28:28, 32). This explains Jesus’ prophecy about how many in that day are “cut off from among my people who are of the covenant” (3 Nephi 21:10–11).
As an extension of 2 Nephi 28, which forms its interpretive context, 2 Nephi 29:1–3 affirms Isaiah’s prediction that the Lord will “set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel.” At that time, he will gather Israel and Judah from the four parts of the earth in a new exodus to Zion (Isaiah 11:11–15). This Book of Mormon definition of the Lord’s marvelous work as the restoration of the house of Israel at the time the Gentiles mostly reject him thus negates the precept of men that that work was the restoration of the gospel.
Because Isaiah and the Book of Mormon define the Lord’s great and marvelous work as the restoration of the house of Israel by God’s end-time servant—when the Lord will “set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel” (Isaiah 11:10–12; 2 Nephi 29:1, 14)—the Gentiles “in Zion” who cry “A Bible! A Bible!” are those who reject more of God’s word when his servant brings forth the words of Christ that are on the large plates of Nephi and other sacred records (1 Nephi 14:25; 2 Nephi 28:24–32; 29:3; 3 Nephi 21:10–11).
Although the Book of Mormon contains “the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ” or “the fulness of my everlasting gospel” (Doctrine & Covenants 20:9; 27:5), that fulness isn’t in the basic principles of the gospel such as faith in Christ, baptism for the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Rather, it is illustrated in the exemplary lives of those who covenanted with God, who offered their all in sacrifice and served as saviors to their people. Among these are those who converted many to Jesus or who were translated and received the sealing power.
The Davidic Covenant works the same, past and present, for those who assume the role of savior to others. While Jesus fulfilled this role on a spiritual level, others may do so on a temporal level. By answering for the disloyalties to God of people to whom one ministers, one may obtain their physical safety in the face of a mortal threat. Witness “Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety” (2 Nephi 6:2); King Mosiah, whose sons “could not be slain” (Alma 19:23); and Helaman, none of whose “sons” died in the war (Alma 57:25).
Because Isaiah 53 for the most part comprises Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel’s suffering Savior, it isn’t included among the main Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon that feature Israel’s end-time restoration. Mormon therefore chooses Abinadi’s encounter with the priests of King Noah to highlight this most auspicious of all scriptural prophecies of Jesus’ atonement for humanity’s transgressions. Abinadi’s testimony that “God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people,” he sealed with his blood (Mosiah 15:1; 17:8).
Abinadi’s teaching that the Lord at his coming would be “the Father and the Son” has roots in the theology of Isaiah. A hierarchy of father–son relationships characterizes a ladder to heaven on which Jehovah/Jesus acts as “son” or vassal to the Most High God but as “father” or emperor to his “sons.” Within the terms of the Davidic Covenant, the word “father” designates a savior who ministers to his “sons” but who also acts as “son” to the Lord. Examples include Eliakim, Gentile kings and queens, and Helaman (Isaiah 22:21; 49:23; 2 Nephi 10:18; Alma 56:46).
700 years after Isaiah’s day and 2000 years before his prophecies were to be fulfilled, Jesus quotes Isaiah to portray the house of Israel’s end-time restoration (3 Nephi 16:17–20; 20:11–13, 32–45; 21:8–10, 29; 22:1–17; Isaiah 29:14; 52:1–3, 8–15; 54:1–17; 57:18–19). Instead of newly predicting that event, he draws on the prophecies of Isaiah just as Nephi and Jacob did. Adding context and clarification, he reassures the Nephites about God’s endgame for their descendants. Notable is his emphasis on the words of Isaiah as a grand key to God’s plan for his people.
Word links confirm that there is but one “servant” in the Book of Isaiah. That is he who performs the messianic mission of restoring the house of Israel before Jehovah/Jesus’ coming to reign on the earth. Although Jesus “took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7)—the role of vassal to an emperor—he is never called a “servant.” The fact that Jesus distinguishes between himself and his servant (3 Nephi 21:10–11) repudiates chapter headings and teaching materials’ perpetuating the “precept of men” that God’s servant in the Book of Isaiah is Jesus Christ.
Book of Mormon prophecies of the house of Israel’s end-time restoration—in fulfillment of God’s covenants with Israel’s ancestors—are based almost exclusively on the words of Isaiah. The fulfillment of Isaiah’s end-time scenario, however, rests on the foundation of the fulness of the gospel that is restored through the prophet Joseph Smith as spiritual kings and queens among the Gentiles are the ones who restore the house of Israel. Still, few Book of Mormon prophecies actually speak of Joseph Smith’s day. These include 1 Nephi 13:34–37 and 2 Nephi 3:6–21).
As the scriptures define the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith in terms of beginning, commencing, or laying the “foundation” of the Lord’s great and marvelous work of restoring the house of Israel (2 Nephi 3:13; Doctrine & Covenant 64:33; 101:47; 136:38)—not as the great and marvelous work itself—Isaiah’s prophecies don’t deal directly with Joseph Smith’s day. A sprouting “shoot,” “rod,” or “watersprout” (hoter) in Isaiah’s mini-allegory of the olive tree, however, fits Joseph Smith’s description (Isaiah 11:1; Doctrine & Covenants 113:3–4).
Those Gentiles who “shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel” after having received it, who cause the gospel to be taken from them and given to the house of Israel, shall indeed be “as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel” (3 Nephi 16:10–12, 15; 20:28–30). As Nephi makes clear, however, “ye need not suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed” (2 Nephi 30:1) as there exist “saviors” among them (Doctrine & Covenants 103:10).
Isaiah’s prophecies of Israel’s restoration that Jesus quotes in 3 Nephi 20:34–45 (Isaiah 52:1–3, 6–15) imply that it is the house of Israel that participates in the new exodus out of Babylon. That event is set in motion when God “bares his arm”—his servant—“in the eyes of all the nations” (3 Nephi 20:35, 41–42; Isaiah 52:10–12) and the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens bring God’s “sons” and “daughters” of the house of Israel in their arms and on their shoulders to lands of inheritance (Isaiah 49:22–23; 60:3–4; 1 Nephi 21:22–23; 2 Nephi 6:5–7; 10:8–9, 18–19).
In contrast to God’s people who go into captivity, carrying with them their idols that couldn’t save them (Isaiah 46:1–2), those who go out of captivity in the new exodus out of Babylon rely on their God to deliver them when he destroys Babylon. The injunction to “Turn away, depart; touch nothing defiled as you leave there. Come out of her and be pure, you who bear Jehovah’s vessels” (Isaiah 52:11; 3 Nephi 20:41), invokes them to “discard as unclean your graven idols plated with silver, and your cast idols gilded in gold” (Isaiah 30:22), as they won’t be needed.
Unlike idolaters, who “flee from destruction, from the bared sword, the drawn bow and the severity of war” (Isaiah 21:15)—having nowhere to go—those who flee Babylon in the new exodus to Zion, do “not leave in haste or go by flight: Jehovah will go before you, the God of Israel behind you” (Isaiah 52:12; 3 Nephi 20:42). While for oppressors and evildoers “nothing remains but to kneel among the captives or fall among the slain” (Isaiah 10:3; 2 Nephi 20:3), for God’s elect provision is made to “depart in joy and be led back in peace” (Isaiah 55:12).
Jesus’ quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of his servant being “marred” and then “healed” (Isaiah 52:13–14; 57:18–19; 3 Nephi 20:43–44; 21:10) forms an integral part of Isaiah’s end-time scenario of Israel’s restoration. In the same context occur the house of Israel’s physical new exodus out of Babylon, the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens’ gathering them to lands of inheritance, the destruction of the wicked, etc. (Isaiah 52:1–3, 6–12; 3 Nephi 16:4–20; 20:29–46; 21:1, 8–29). Isaiah’s prophecies of a marred servant thus apply to an end-time servant, not to Joseph Smith.
saiah’s prophecy of God’s servant being “marred” (mishhat) “beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:13–14; 3 Nephi 20:43–44; 21:10) illustrates the price of suffering the servant is willing to pay on behalf of the house of Israel as he answers to God for their disloyalties.in order to obtain their physical protection as they exit Babylon in a new exodus: “By bearing their iniquities, shall my servant, the righteous one, vindicate many” (Isaiah 53:11). For the servant himself, it is part of his descent phase that precedes his ascent phase of rebirth to Isaiah’s spiritual level of seraph.
The word the KJV translates “sprinkle (yizeh) can also mean “purge,” “startle,” or “astound.” The English word “astound” better parallels “astonished” or “appalled” (shommemu) in the a–b–a mini-structure it forms part of: “Just as he appalled many—his appearance was marred beyond human likeness, his semblance unlike that of men—so shall he yet astound many nations” (Isaiah 52:14–15; 3 Nephi 20:44–45). God’s translating him to Isaiah’s spiritual level of seraph will undoubtedly magnify his mission to all nations that Isaiah predicts and Jesus restates.
Jesus clarifies “kings shutting their mouths at him, for what was not told them they shall see and what they had not heard they shall consider” by relating it to God’s great and a marvelous work that many of his people do “not believe” (Isaiah 52:15; 3 Nephi 20:45; 21:8–9). As word links identify the “kings” spoken of as the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles who restore the house of Israel (Isaiah 49:7, 22–23; 1 Nephi 21:7, 22–23; 2 Nephi 6:7; 10:8–9), “shutting their mouths” alludes to their receiving instruction in how to perform the great and marvelous work.
Mormon’s stating that Jesus’ teachings in the Book of Mormon are but “a lesser part of the things which he taught the people,” and that “if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them” (3 Nephi 26:8–9), gives some idea of what the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens have not been told or considered. Interwoven with “these things” are the prophecies of Isaiah, which themselves are called “great” (3 Nephi 21:1). Also believing them thus qualifies one for both believing and receiving the “greater things.”
The commonly believed “precept of men” that the Lord’s great and marvelous work is the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith will doubtless result in many who don’t keep Jesus’ commandment to search Isaiah’s words for themselves’ not believing the true nature of that work. Feeling threatened by the role of God’s end-time servant who restores the house of Israel, they will be among those who say, “Hear ye our precept” for “the Lord hath [already] done his work, and he hath given his power unto men” (2 Nephi 28:5–6).
Word links and connecting themes in the Book of Isaiah and other scriptures identify God’s “servant” as an end-time individual who is “appointed” by Jehovah/Jesus to minister to God’s people of the house of Israel (Isaiah 9:6; 21:6; 22:20–24; 41:27; 42:6–7; 49:6–10; 55:3–5). As the “male child” to whom the Woman Zion gives birth when she goes into labor (Isaiah 66:7)—when God’s elect people suffer oppression at the hands of their enemies—he is marred and then translated when he is “caught up to God and to his throne” (3 Nephi 21:10–11; Revelation 12:5).
The words of Christ that his end-time servant brings forth are those written on the large plates of Nephi when Jesus “did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory” (3 Nephi 26:3). By contrast, Jesus’ words in 3 Nephi 9–28—recorded on the small plates of Nephi—are called the “lesser part” of what he taught the people (3 Nephi 26:8). Lest the end-time Gentiles should be “cut off from among my people who are of the covenant” (3 Nephi 21:11), Isaiah’s words about the servant, which Jesus expounds, are crucial to learn.
The Book of Mormon idiom “remnant of Jacob”—which traces back to the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah—defines the house of Israel in the interim before they are restored to God’s covenant and to lands of inheritance (Isaiah 10:21–22; 2 Nephi 20:21–22; Micah 5:8–9; 3 Nephi 20:16–17; 21:12–13). These include the latter-day Lamanites/Nephites, “who are a remnant of the house of Jacob” (3 Nephi 21:2, 23), who will be among the apostate Gentiles “as a lion among the beasts of the forest,” treading them down and tearing in pieces (3 Nephi 20:16; 21:12; Micah 5:8).
Jesus’ saying, “Ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah” (Isaiah 23:1), he clarifies when he adds, “For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. And all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake” (3 Nephi 23:2–3). In effect, his words are “great” because they cover God’s entire plan of salvation, past and future.
Jesus’ saying, “Ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah” (Isaiah 23:1), he clarifies when he adds, “For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. And all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake” (3 Nephi 23:2–3). In effect, his words are “great” because they cover God’s entire plan of salvation, past and future.
Typically, people who consider Isaiah’s prophecies divisive are those who haven’t searched them for themselves as Jesus commanded. Instead, they have been “led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men” (2 Nephi 28:14). When they become acquainted with Isaiah’s words, the foundations of their beliefs may totter because many things they had supposed were true are seen to have no scriptural basis of fact. Those who understand Isaiah’s words, on the other hand, are typically persons who are zealous to learn more truth.
Understanding the words of Isaiah can be such an empowering experience that scriptures which were once obscure now become comprehensible within the vast tapestry of truth that constitutes the word of God. As a constituent part of God’s “one great whole” of truth, the Book of Mormon testifies of the words of Isaiah and they testify of the Book of Mormon. When we apply the same literary tools to the Book of Mormon that unseal the words of Isaiah, we discern a similar highly developed scriptural account capable of creating in us a spiritual and intellectual testimony.
