Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Terry Ball and Nathan Will on "Isles" in Isaiah

  

Isaiah 49 opens with another Servant Song (compare Isaiah 42). As Nephi quoted Isaiah 49 to his brothers, he included a significant introduction that helps us identify the isles to whom this prophecy is addressed. While our current Old Testament version begins with a simple imperative, “Listen, O isles unto me” (49:1), Nephi’s version begins, “And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad who are of m people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me” (1 Nephi 21:1). Thus we learn that isles, as used in Isaiah, refers to the scattered covenant people. (Terry Ball and Nathan Will, Making Sense of Isaiah: Insights and Modern Applications [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2009], 138, emphasis in bold added)