2 Nephi 24

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

Chapter 24

Israel will be gathered and will enjoy millennial rest—Lucifer was cast out of heaven for rebellion—Israel will triumph over Babylon (the world)—Compare Isaiah 14. About 559–545 B.C.

  1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, Gileadi- one of Isaiah's categories of people (Jacob/Israel) and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; if they repent and renew their covenant relationship with Jehovah and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. the strangers sound like "converts" or the Ten Tribe? Those who see how Jehovah blesses his people unite with them to become one nation in the end.
  2 And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; yea, from far unto the ends of the earth; and they shall return to their lands of promise. And the house of Israel shall possess them, Noticing it says "lands" of promise. Israel is the land of promise to the Jews. America is the land of promise to the Lamanites. I suppose others have been given lands of promise too? Gileadi- This is in the millennium. Those who "inherit the land" are escorted home by certain spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles in a new exodus to Zion after Jehovah has begun his reign of peace on the earth. and the land of the Lord shall be for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captives unto whom they were captives; and they shall rule over their oppressors. There will be survivors of the Day of Judgment of former oppressors of Jehovah's people or their descendants who will convert and serve Jehovah by serving his elect as they learn His ways. 
  3 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. I suppose this could still be before us. But in the 'big picture' we've been in a kind of bondage for many years - to lies, corrupt rulers, money, false beliefs. The Lord said darkness covered the earth way back in 1831. Satan is the one who has had us all in bondage; kept from the truth. So, this could possibly come without further bondage. Although, if God does not intervene, we are headed for literal bondage with this pandemic! and the NWO plans 
  4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased! Gileadi-Unlike Jehovah’s elect, who participate in an end-time exodus to Zion, and unlike the wicked who perish from the earth, a middle category of Jehovah’s people survives his Day of Judgment without his direct divine intervention. These suffer the curse of servitude to the Assyrian archtyrant, who here appears under his religious or cultic title “king of Babylon” in the pattern of ancient Assyrian conquerors of Babylon. In this parody of a lament—beginning with the word “How” (cf. Lamentations 1:1)—those who survive his servitude launch into a “taunt,” glad to see the end of him and his tyranny
  5 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepters of the rulers.
 6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The staff and rod whose power is now broken designate the king of Assyria (Isaiah 10:5, 15), alias the king of Babylon (v 4), who rules for a time when it serves Jehovah’s purpose to punish the wicked of the world (Isaiah 10:12). His personifying Jehovah’s anger and wrath toward a corrupt humanity accords with Jehovah’s design to convince the earth’s inhabitants to repent of evil. Jehovah thus uses the wicked to destroy the wicked and to induce those who might be persuaded to return to him. The archtyrant’s demise shatters the myth of his absolute power (vv 15-20; Isaiah 26:13-14; 30:30-33).
  7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing.
  8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and also the cedars of Lebanon, saying: Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us.  a surviving middle category of Jehovah’s people—may now flourish unhindered. Now can the earth rest and Jehovah’s millennial reign of peace begin. Jehovah’s axe and saw, his rod and staff (v 5; Isaiah 9:4; 10:15), has finished his work of destruction; the “hewer” of Jehovah’s people and the nations (Isaiah 10:33-34; 37:24) has himself been hewn down.
  9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; the King of A/b it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; the spirits of wicked leaders already in spirit prison it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
  10 All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? These things imply (1) that the spirits of the departed in Hell maintain, or seek to maintain, a kind of anti-hierarchy; (2) that many leaders of nations end up in a lower world for having ruled their peoples unrighteously; (3) that the spirits of those who depart this world are apprised of the imminent arrival of people from this world who die; and (4) that, unlike the righteous, the wicked are rendered powerless in the end.
  11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Like a common mortal, he who ruled the world, who inspired fear in men’s hearts, goes the way of all flesh, his body consumed by maggots and worms. With his passing, a millennial age of peace begins for surviving humanity
  12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! Twin laments (vv 4-11, 12-20) create a single tyrannical figure who combines several ancient types: (1) a militaristic Assyrian world conqueror from the North; (2) a Babylonian idol ruler; and (3) a Mesopotamian mythological god. This composite figure combines allusions to a fallen angel with an earthbound despot who “commands the nations” but who—as a human demi-god—is “hewn down to earth.” The terms “morning star, son of the dawn” (helel ben-sahar) denote a category of “sons of God” who attained exalted status before the creation of the earth (Genesis 6:1-4; Job 38:4-7).
  13 For thou hast said in thy heart: the King of A/B I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; 
  14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. a counterfeit of celestial exaltation—is possible to attain with today’s space technology.
  15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. There are some disturbing thoughts "out there" that Satan thinks he can set up some system to circumvent the "Plan" of God and the resurrection and judgment through some other means. He is so very wrong. God is His creator and he cannot escape the "law" of God. As the exemplar of the wicked, he establishes a pattern of pride, ambition, oppression, injustice, and all things reprehensible. To the degree people emulate his character traits, to that degree they suffer a similar fate. Belonging to Isaiah’s Perdition category—a spiritual point of no return—the archtyrant’s spirit descends to the Pit of Dissolution (Isaiah 38:17-18; 51:14), there eventually to undergo extinction (Isaiah 26:13-14).
  16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?
  17 And made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners? Although he gained the whole world, it profited him nothing as he suffers the loss of his own soul
 18 All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them, lie in glory, every one of them in his own house While the dead remains of the world’s dignitaries are honored in death by lying in state, the archtyrant’s corpse lies unburied like an abhorrent excretion exposed to the elements.
 19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and the remnant of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.
 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. As the one who served as Jehovah’s sword did to others, so it is done to him. Instead of being a protector of his people and their land, as befits a king, he engineered their destruction by taking them to war against Jehovah’s elect. As a mass murderer, he suffers the covenant curse of no burial for his carcass, becoming the poster child for a “brood of miscreants” whose memory is erased from the earth (Isaiah 26:13-14).
  21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquities of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.  Because offspring and descendants constitute the foremost covenant blessing pertaining to Jehovah’s covenants, those who violate the rights of his elect inherit no offspring or descendants.
 22 For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. Satan will have no posterity - literally nor any adopted children. 
 23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts. While Jehovah—the King of Zion—delivers his loyal people, the king of Assyria/Babylon slays his own kind. As a broom of destruction, he sweeps the earth clean of the wicked, leaving none of their offspring or descendants, so that the very name Babylon fades from people’s memory.
  24 The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand—ALL Gods words shall be fulfilled
 25 That I will bring the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. As Jehovah “foresaw” and “planned” from the beginning, the destruction of the wicked would precede the earth’s transformation to a paradisiacal state (Isaiah 33:1-20; 37:26). Although an end-time Assyria—of whom ancient Assyria is a type—would carry out that destruction, Assyria itself would be destroyed “in my own land” and “on my mountains.” Only remnants of the Ten Tribes who went captive into ancient Assyria would be left (Isaiah 19:23-25). By invading the lands of Jehovah’s people, Assyria would seal its own fate, and its yoke—the archtyrant—would be broken (Isaiah 9:4; 10:27).
  26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.
 27 For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? The things Jehovah has determined or decreed upon the whole earth are the destruction of the wicked and the deliverance of the righteous (Isaiah 10:23; 13:4-5; 35:3-4; 49:25-26), one being inseparable from the other. The hand that is upraised over all nations denotes the king of Assyria/Babylon at the height of his power: “Yet for all this his anger is not abated; his hand is upraised still” (Isaiah 5:25; 9:12, 17, 21; emphasis added; cf. 10:4-5; 13:2). In the end, he who puts down the archtyrant is Jehovah’s servant—his right hand—whom Jehovah likewise raises up (Isaiah 11:10-15; 41:10-13).
  28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
  29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. Within its historical context, the rod that smote the Philistines is King Ahaz (Isaiah 7:3, 10-12), who is here identified as a snake or serpent—a messianic symbol (Numbers 21:9). Ahaz’ death serves as the occasion for Isaiah to predict a three-part end-time scenario similar to Isaiah 11:1: from the descendants of David, represented by Ahaz, springs up a viper, a second messianic figure represented by King Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:4-6). Lastly, from the latter’s offspring comes a fiery flying serpent or “flying seraph”—a messianic figure pertaining to Isaiah’s seraph category—Jehovah’s servant.
  30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. When Jehovah’s servant gathers Jehovah’s people as a flock to Zion (Isaiah 40:11; 63:11-14), Jehovah comes and the earth’s millennium of peace begins.  While on the one hand Jehovah’s elect poor and needy inherit the earth, on the other, the world’s wicked peoples—represented by the Philistines—die of famine and foreign invasion, which are covenant curses. All three components of Isaiah’s Zion ideology appear in verses 29-30: (1) the destruction of the wicked; (2) the deliverance of the righteous; and (3) the presence of Jehovah’s servant.
  31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved; for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.The enemies of Jehovah’s people have cause to “wail,” “howl,” and “melt away” when destruction comes “from the North”—from beyond the horizon (Isaiah 5:26; 13:5)—as conspired by the king of Assyria/Babylon (cf. Isaiah 54:16). The pillars of “smoke” form a word link to the “mushrooming clouds of smoke” that billow upward when “the earth is scorched and people are but fuel for the fire” in Jehovah’s Day of Judgment (Isaiah 9:18-19). While the wicked of the world suffer the fire and smoke of destruction, Jehovah protects his repentant people beneath his cloud of glory (Isaiah 4:5-6; 25:4-5).
  32 What shall then answer the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. The “envoys” or messengers of Jehovah’s people who participate in the establishment of Zion go forth among the nations to invite them to ascend there (Isaiah 2:2-3; 52:7-12). As Israel was born as a nation following its exodus out of Egypt—when it covenanted with Jehovah in the Sinai wilderness—so those who return from exile are born as a new nation identified with Zion (Isaiah 55:5, 12; 66:8-10). Jehovah’s “founding” of Zion—as a people of God and a place of refuge (Isaiah 1:27; 35:10)—paves the way for him to reside there when Israel’s exiles repent and return (Isaiah 59:20; 62:10-12). Again, a whole chapter of judgment ends with a promise to Zion. The Lord is the one who founded it and the people of Zion can trust God always. I am wondering when Joseph Smith got to these passages in Isaiah, did he just go to the Old Testament and copy them or did he translate the characters that were on the Gold plates and they were the same as we have in the Old Testament.... Whichever it is, it was important enough to include again, for our day. God knew we would already have these words in the Old Testament. Why would He have them given to us again in the Book of Mormon? Isn't this to leave us without excuse as to their relevance and importance?