2 Nephi 23

(All of my own thoughts are in red type.5/20 Green 2/21 Orange 5/22 Brown 2023)

Chapter 23

The destruction of Babylon is a type of the destruction at the Second Coming—It will be a day of wrath and vengeance—Babylon (the world) will fall forever—Compare Isaiah 13. About 559–545 B.C.

  1 The burden of Babylon, prophecy concerning a wicked world on the eve of its destruction in the end times (and Isaiah's Babylon) which Isaiah the son of Amoz Isaiah did see.
  2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, Zion Gileadi's hebrew translations says "barren" mountain meaning the place where the archtyrant is from isn't an agriculture nation exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, Gileadi- all three represent the king of A/B who rallies an alliance of nations to conquer the world. They can also refer to the "servant" so we can know they are contemporaries and rivals. that they may go into the gates of the nobles.  The elites who include the wicked of Jehovah's people are the archtyrant's prime target and he plunder and despoils.
  3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, those IN Zion I have also called my mighty ones, Translated beings? for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness. God is with us Do we really know how to qualify to be in Zion? Do we know how to rejoice in “His highness?” I really really don’t want to experience the wrath that God will send on Babylon...Gileadi-The King of A/B can't harm Jehovah's elect in his Day of Judgment. They are delivered. At the very time the King of A/B plans to attack them, they are led out of destruction by Jehovah's servant.
  4 The noise of the multitude in the mountains "kingdoms/nations" There are a lot of saints in Zion? like as of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, are these the saints from among all the nations, or the nations gathered against Zion... the Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle. Jehovah sends the archtyrant to make war on Jehovah's people and all nations. These people hate Israel's God and his people.
  5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, Ten Tribes? City of Enoch? yea, the Lord, the one really delivering judgment and the weapons of his indignation, archtyrant's  to destroy the whole land. He comes from a distant nation to destroy all nations and the wicked of Jehovah's people.
  6 Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
  7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, every man’s heart shall melt; Atomic? 
  8 And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Gileadi-Jehovah’s Day of Judgment will be unlike anything since the Flood in its destructiveness (Isaiah 54:8-10). While the righteous experience joy at their miraculous deliverance, the wicked yield to terror as they experience the world’s all-time worst-case scenario. In that day, all the earth’s inhabitants go into labor, some to perish, others to be delivered (Isaiah 21:1-3; 26:17-18; 66:7-11). Those who exercise perfect integrity live through the devouring fire to see Jehovah’s coming in glory (Isaiah 33:14-16; 43:2). Others, like Lot’s wife, disintegrate in its conflagration (cf. Genesis 19:24-26).
  9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Those in "power" are so arrogant that they will be sorely amazed when destruction comes upon them. God will have been merciful for soooo long, that when justice comes, it will be fully deserved and it will be “everlastingly too late” 
  10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. This could be literal, from the smoke and ashes of fires. Or do the stars and moon represent God's servants not shining their light among the wicked anymore...Gileadi - Darkness-a covenant curse-typifies the cataclysmic destruction. Only for Jehovah's elect does the "light dawn amid darkness," drawing them to Zion.
  11 And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay down the haughtiness of the terrible.Like I said...This is Jehovah talking...
  12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Gileadi -A precious category of humanity—a tithe of the tithe of the earth’s inhabitants (Isaiah 6:13)—resembles “fine gold.” These pass through the refiner’s fire when Jehovah’s judgments come upon the wicked...Those whom Jehovah delivers consists only of precious and semiprecious categories of humanity.
  13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. Is this referring to the time spoken of in this quote by JFS Jr? How will we survive such an earthquake that would cause this massive land movement? When Christ comes, "as a part of the great restoration, this land surface will be brought back to its original form. When that time comes, the land of Zion (Western Hemisphere) and the land of Jerusalem 'shall be turned back into their own place, and the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided.' D&C 133:21-25. John saw this day when 'every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.'" Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, p. 75 (quoting Revelations 6:14; 16:20). Gileadi - After the earth’s dislocation serves his purpose, Jehovah “replants the heavens and sets the earth in place” in a new cosmic trajectory
 14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up; and they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.Those who don’t repent in time to participate in the exodus of Jehovah’s elect to Zion must fend for themselves among the nations. As aliens are often suspect, people return to their own countries for safety. Still, as “deer” and “sheep” are ritually clean animals, those who flee represent a category of Jehovah’s people. Comprising neither the “holy” and “valiant” souls whom Jehovah gathers out of destruction in the new exodus (v 3), nor the wicked who perish (vv 9, 11), this middle category, too, learns by experience what Jehovah desires to teach his people and to whom they may turn for help.
 15 Every one that is proud shall be thrust through; yea, and every one that is joined to the wicked shall fall by the sword.
 16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished. Seems to be pointing the finger at the men in power. I’m remembering in church history that this is what they did to the saints...will this happen again? You sow what you reap? The king of Assyria/Babylon—Jehovah’s sword—pursues a strategy of genocide: “His purpose shall be to annihilate and to exterminate nations not a few” (Isaiah 10:7). In Jehovah’s Day of Judgment, the world’s wicked come under God’s justice. Although Jehovah had offered mercy, promising deliverance to those who repent, they refused.
 17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver and gold, nor shall they delight in it. The evil rulers lust after power and money
 18 Their bows shall also dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children. This sounds like many 'innocent' children of the wicked will suffer and those deaths ...I would think...will be visited on the heads of their fathers. Also makes me think of abortion. Jehovah “stirs up” the enemies of the wicked to destroy them (Isaiah 5:30; 9:11; 51:15). Forming a part of the Assyrian alliance are a cruel people from the East who pursue a policy of exterminating instead of plundering their victims: “Like tornadoes sweeping through the South, they come from the steppes, a land of terror. A grim vision has been revealed to me. . . Attack, O Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! All the sighing [Babylon] has caused I will bring to an end” (Isaiah 21:1-2). They distinguish between neither the righteous—the silver and gold—nor the wicked; between neither young nor old.
 19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Babylon, the world’s all-time elite civilization—magnificent, resplendent, awe-inspiring in its immensity and grandeur—meets the fate of the basest, most degenerate society the world has known, wiped off the face of the earth in a fiery conflagration rained down from the sky. Its citizens, the Chaldeans, once admired throughout the earth for creating this model of opulence, become synonymous with the curse of Sodom and Gomorrah. Babylon and all who are identified with it—the sinners and wicked of the earth and the world (vv 9, 11)—disappear forever (Isaiah 14:22-23; 21:9; 47:1-15).
 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.Following the destruction of the wicked, certain parts of the earth remain as memorials, reminding its inhabitants of the consequences of transgressing against their Maker (Isaiah 66:24). Like ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, such places remain uninhabitable because of the kind of destruction that occurred there.
 21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
 22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her day shall not be prolonged. For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish. It can be hard to hear of this kind of judgment, but we must remember this last sentence: "I will be merciful unto my people." We must always be numbered among His people. Also notice that it will be quick, which is still a kind of mercy even in the midst of judgment. Is this what it means when He says, “Behold I come quickly”? Really need to be sure we know how we are called "His people". I'm not certain it's solely by membership in the church...The only ones who live in Babylon’s abandoned ruins are unclean animals reminiscent of the wicked who used to live there. Residents who formerly “infested” its buildings and housing areas, who “lodged” in crowded, “overflowing” conditions, now have their counterparts in “wild animals,” “weasels,” “birds of prey,” and “demonic creatures.” The entertainers who formerly “pranced about” and “cried out” in its “palaces” and “amusement halls” are now represented by “jackals” and “howling creatures.” Like a pregnancy gone wrong, Babylon’s days are numbered and she doesn’t survive her ordeal.