The Interpreter Foundation just published a new article:
Matthew L. Bowen, “’Upon
All the Nations”: The gôyim in Nephi’s Rendition of Isaiah 2 (2 Nephi
12) in Literary Context,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint
Faith and Scholarship 67 (2025): 201-28.
Matt discusses some variants between the text of Isaiah in
the KJV and the Book of Mormon, such as the following:
2 Nephi 12:5 (= Isa 2:5):
A lengthy textual variant in 2
Nephi 12:5 further establishes the connection between the prophecy of Isaiah 2
and Jesus Christ. Nephi’s text contains the additional invitation and
declaration: “yea, come, for ye have all gone astray, every one to his wicked
ways.” This additional sentence constitutes a startling intertextual link to
the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53, Isaiah’s great poem on the Messiah’s
atonement: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Sin and apostasy are so universal among the nations that they require an
atonement that is also universal or “infinite and eternal” (see Alma 34:10,
14). The common solution for “all” humankind is to repent and come unto Jesus
Christ. (p. 210)
2 Nephi 12:16 (= Isa 2:16) and the addition of “upon
all the ships of the sea” and the issue about tricola:
The phrase “upon all the ships of
the sea” may well represent an ancient variant preserved on the brass plates.
The Septuagint variant kai epi pan ploion thalassēs (“and upon every
ship of the sea”) alone makes this highly plausible. Another possible
solution—and still better than casting about for a modern source —is that the
phrase “upon all the ships of the sea” is Nephi’s own universalizing addition
to the text, which also appears to be true of the addition of the clauses in 2
Nephi 12:14, “and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every
people.” The clause, “upon all the ships of the sea,” like these other clauses,
emphasizes the universality of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord will
come upon all the ships of the sea, including those of Tarshish. If Nephi was
writing, as he says, “that they [his people and all who would receive his
record] may know the judgments of God, that they come upon all nations,
according to the word which he hath spoken” (2 Nephi 25:3), such additions
would closely align with one of Nephi’s most significant stated purposes in
writing. In sum, “upon all the ships of the sea” could have been on the brass
plates, but it is also possible that it, along with the other textual additions
in 2 Nephi 12–24, originates with Nephi himself
The Masoretic text of Isaiah 2:17
and Nephi’s text in 2 Nephi 12:17 are both structured as a tricolon: “And the
loftiness of man [ʾādām] shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men
[ʾănāšîm] shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that
day.” This presence of the tricolon here means that it need not be regarded as
irregular elsewhere in this text. The use of the matching terms ʾādām
(“man”) and ʾănāšîm (“men”), as in the Masoretic text, again stresses
the universality of the coming day of the Lord and contrasts the reduction of
human selfi-mportance with the Lord’s glory. In terms of Nephi’s message, these
are the same “men” for whom he said that his people might “rejoice” and to whom
they might liken Isaiah’s words (2 Nephi 11:8). (pp. 213-14)
2 Nephi 19:1 (= Isa 9:1) and the addition of “Red”
before “Sea”:
It is worth considering the
relationship between “Red Sea” in Nephi’s text and a latter-day or
eschatological fulfillment of Nephi’s prophecy.
When foreign armies—the armies of
“the nations,” like Assyria and Babylonia—invaded Israel and Judah, they
typically came from the northeast. It was much more difficult to invade by
crossing the deserts from the eastern direction. These armies came from the
northeast from the direction of the King’s Highway, which subsequently becomes
“the way of the Red Sea” in the land “beyond Jordan” (see figure 1). For Nephi,
the phrase “the way of the Red Sea” seems to have located the fulfillment of
the prophecy in Isaiah 9 in the vicinity of where Moses raised up the brazen
serpent: “And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea,
to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way” (Numbers 21:4). Did Nephi identify the location where Moses
lifted a serpent-seraph upon a nēs (Numbers 21:5–9) as the first place where the
Lord “lift[ed] up” an “ensign” (nēs) to “the nations?” A comparison
between 2 Nephi 25:20 and Isaiah 11:10, 12 suggests that Nephi saw a conceptual
relationship between these texts, especially given his idiosyncratic use of
nations to describe the tribes of Israel in 2 Nephi 25:20. Jesus’s own
disciples saw his Galilean ministry as a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah
9 (see Matthew 4:14–16). For Nephi, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6–7/2
Nephi 19:6–7 would be in the “day of the Lord”:
For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name
shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of government and peace there is no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it
with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of Hosts will perform this.
The prophetic promises in verse 7
particularly require conditions that will be brought about by the day of the
Lord upon the nations. (pp. 217-18)
Figure 1 (ibid.,
217):
