Where we are
The book of 2 Nephi has just made its largest editorial shift. Chapters 1–5 are Lehi's deathbed and Nephi's flight to the land of Nephi; chapter 6 opens Jacob's temple sermon, which runs through the end of chapter 10 (four full chapters, spoken in two days). The structural marker is verse 1 — the words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi. From chapter 6 through chapter 10, we are hearing Jacob in his own voice, not Nephi quoting Jacob.
This is the first sustained sermon in the Book of Mormon. King Benjamin's temple sermon (Mosiah 2–5) is the second. Both are temple sermons. Both are covenant-renewal sermons. Both are delivered by covenant officers (Jacob as consecrated priest, Benjamin as king-priest) to gathered covenant peoples at the temple during what reads like a festival convocation. Jacob's sermon is the template Benjamin will follow. The pattern is consistent: gather at the temple, hear the prophet read Isaiah, hear the prophet expound Isaiah, accept the covenant, receive the new name, be reminded of the disciple's discipleship-grammar. The shape will be repeated across the BoM and inherited by Joseph Smith's temple-revelation texts (D&C 88, D&C 109's Kirtland dedication).
Jacob's first move — and it is the move that defines the sermon — is to read Isaiah 49 again. Chapter 21 was already Isaiah 49 in Nephi's voice; 2 Nephi 6 quotes Isaiah 49:22–52:2 (in chapters 6–8) as Jacob's foundational text. The chapter is therefore the second sustained Isaiah block in the BoM after 1 Nephi 20–21. The repetition is deliberate. Isaiah 49 is so important that it has to be read twice — once by Nephi to his household, once by Jacob to the gathered city. The doctrine of covenant gathering through Gentile vessels is being re-anchored at the foundation of the new sermon. Whatever Jacob is about to say in chapters 9 and 10 is being predicated on the Isaiah 49 gathering oracle. The gathering is the frame; the doctrine of the Atonement (ch. 9) and the doctrine of the isle of the sea (ch. 10) sit inside the frame.
The consecration credential (verses 1–4)
The words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi: Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. — 2 Nephi 6:1–2
Jacob opens with his credentials. Called of God. Ordained after the manner of his holy order. Consecrated by my brother Nephi. The threefold credential is the Restoration's priesthood-authority formula in compressed form. Called — divine selection (Heb. 5:4 — no man taketh this honor unto himself). Ordained — formal conferral of authority (the holy order of Melchizedek, cf. Alma 13:1–9). Consecrated — set apart for the specific office (cf. Ex. 28:41; D&C 20:60). Jacob is laying out how a man speaks for God — by call, ordination, and consecration. This is credential-theology. The hearer can trust the message because the messenger has been authorized by the proper channels.
This is no small thing. Jacob is speaking to a new-world covenant people who have no continuous priestly succession back to Aaron. He cannot invoke blood-descent from the Aaronic line (he is of Joseph through Lehi, not Levi through Aaron). He invokes the holy order — the Melchizedek order — which predates the Aaronic and is not bound to Levitical genealogy. The Brass Plates contain the Melchizedek tradition (Gen. 14:18–20); Jacob is standing inside it. The chapter is implicitly teaching that the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek is the priesthood of the Lehite cult. The Aaronic offices of the Mosaic temple are not available in the new world; the higher order is what Jacob holds. This anticipates D&C 84 and 107's Melchizedek priesthood doctrine by twenty-four centuries.
The prophetic burden (verses 3–5)
And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of Isaiah. And they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God. — 2 Nephi 6:3–4
Two things here.
First, Nephi has assigned Jacob this sermon. The text says they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. The chapter is the result of a priestly assignment. Jacob is not self-initiating the sermon; Nephi has delegated the homiletical work. This is administrative-priestly structure. The king-priest (Nephi) commissions the consecrated priest (Jacob) to deliver a specific text. The pattern anticipates modern stake conferences, general conferences, and all assigned sacrament-meeting talks — the speaker speaks because the office has assigned the text, not because the speaker has felt a personal urge. The chapter is priesthood-administered preaching.
Second, Jacob frames his motive theologically. I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God. The chapter's purpose is pedagogical (learning) and liturgical (glorifying). The disciple learns the prophet's words; the disciple glorifies God in response. The grammar is the same as Westminster's the chief end of man is to glorify God. Jacob is naming the anthropological purpose of the sermon. The sermon exists to enable the people to fulfill the human end.
Now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel; wherefore, they may be likened unto you, for ye are of the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are of the house of Israel. — 2 Nephi 6:5
Likened unto you. Jacob invokes the liken-hermeneutic of 1 Nephi 19:23 explicitly. He is teaching his audience how to read Isaiah. Isaiah's prophecies about the house of Israel apply to you because you are the house of Israel. The chapter is Restoration hermeneutic in practice. Every modern reading of Isaiah by a Restoration disciple stands inside Jacob's invocation here. You are of the house of Israel; therefore, the prophecy is about you. The reading is participatory. The disciple is not a spectator of Isaiah's vision; the disciple is named in Isaiah's vision.
The Isaiah 49 citation begins (verses 6–7)
And now, these are the words: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. — 2 Nephi 6:6–7
Jacob picks up Isaiah 49 at verse 22 — the Gentile-vessels verse. He skips the womb-call, the engraved-palms, the gathering of the children — those have already been read in 1 Nephi 21. He starts exactly where the gathering action begins in the Gentile world. The choice is significant. Jacob is not redoing what Nephi did; Jacob is picking up where Nephi left off and re-applying the verse to the new-world covenant situation.
For Jacob's audience, Gentile vessels is not abstract. The Lehites are living in the new world, surrounded by peoples whose covenant status Jacob will say something about over the next chapters. Some of Jacob's hearers may have been adopted in (Mulekites later in the BoM; possibly groups Nephi gathered in 2 Ne. 5 whom we never learn the genealogy of). The Gentile-vessel verse functions for them as a promise and a warning: the covenant moves through Gentile carriers; do not write off the Gentile world as covenantally inert. The chapter is opening the missiological imagination of the new covenant people.
Jacob's exegesis: the Jerusalem destruction (verses 8–11)
And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem, from whence we came, have been slain and carried away captive. — 2 Nephi 6:8
Jacob has received a revelation about the fate of Jerusalem. This is one of the few BoM passages where a Lehite prophet receives direct revelatory news about Old World events. The doctrine: the prophetic gift includes geographically distant present-tense knowledge. Jacob knows — in his new-world location, perhaps two decades after the Babylonian conquest of 587 BC — what has happened at Jerusalem. The Lord has shown him. Compare 2 Kings 6:12 (Elisha knowing the king of Syria's bedroom plans); D&C 110 (Joseph Smith seeing Moses and Elijah at Kirtland). The seer's geography is open. The chapter is teaching that the prophet is informed by the Lord, not by news-channels.
Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again. And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me. — 2 Nephi 6:9
Jacob anticipates both the return from Babylon (Cyrus's decree, 539 BC, fulfilled in Ezra-Nehemiah) and the Crucifixion of Christ in one prophetic compass. The chapter is doing the long view. The same Jerusalem that Lehi left will be restored (so the Crucifixion can happen there); the Lord will manifest himself in the flesh there; they will scourge him and crucify him. This is one of the most explicit pre-Christian statements of the Crucifixion in Jerusalem in scripture. The verse is older than the Gospels by six centuries. The verse names scourging and crucifixion by name. Compare Neum at 1 Nephi 19:10 (crucified — same Brass-Plates tradition). The Brass Plates carried the Crucifixion prophecy (the plain and precious of 1 Ne. 13:25–29 that was removed from the Hebrew canon between Lehi's day and the Masoretic).
And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted. — 2 Nephi 6:10
The post-Crucifixion suffering of Israel — the Roman wars of AD 70 and 135, the long dispersion — is named. Jacob's theology of history is identical to Nephi's at 1 Nephi 22:5. The rejection of the Holy One produces the dispersion. Jacob is reinforcing the same doctrine in the temple-sermon context. The disciple who hears Jacob hears the long-arc consequence of covenant rejection.
Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance. — 2 Nephi 6:11
Because of the prayers of the faithful. This is one of the great intercessory lines in the BoM. The Jewish people through the long dispersion are preserved — shall not be suffered to perish — because of the prayers of the faithful. Who are the faithful whose prayers preserve scattered Israel? In the BoM grammar, the faithful are the covenant-keeping disciples of all ages and places. Lehi praying in the wilderness, Jacob praying at the temple in the new world, the faithful of every dispensation: the cumulative weight of intercessory prayer over twenty-five centuries keeps Israel from being destroyed in the dispersion. The verse is teaching that intercessory prayer has covenant historical force. The disciple's prayers do work in history. Compare Mosiah 26's shaphakh (pouring out the soul) doctrine; compare Helaman 10:3–11 (Nephi's power over the elements as the fruit of long faithful prayer); compare D&C 121:1–6 (Joseph Smith's intercessory prayer in Liberty Jail received as gathered by the Lord).
The condition of the gathering (verse 11)
The verse's condition is critical. When they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered. The gathering is not unconditional. The gathering requires the recognition of Christ. This is the Christological condition of the gathering of Israel. Israel is not gathered apart from Christ; Israel is gathered to Christ. The Restoration-era reading: the gathering of the Jewish people in the modern state of Israel (which exists physically since 1948) is not yet the covenant gathering of Jacob 6:11; the covenant gathering happens when those gathered come to the knowledge of their Redeemer. The doctrine is the same as Romans 11:25–27 (Paul's prophecy that all Israel shall be saved — when the Deliverer shall come out of Sion). The Lehite expectation, the Pauline expectation, and the Restoration expectation converge on Christ as the gathering point.
The Gentile fate (verse 12)
And blessed are the Gentiles, they of whom the prophet has written; for behold, if it so be that they shall repent and fight not against Zion, and do not unite themselves to that great and abominable church, they shall be saved; for the Lord God will fulfil his covenants which he has made unto his children; and for this cause the prophet has written these things. — 2 Nephi 6:12
The Gentiles have a covenant offer and a conditional warning. Blessed — if they repent; if they fight not against Zion; if they do not unite themselves to the great and abominable church. The verse is doing two things. First, the Gentile is not categorically excluded from the covenant. The blessing is extended to every Gentile who chooses to repent and not war against Zion. Second, the Gentile is conditionally included; the blessing is forfeited by fighting Zion or uniting with the great and abominable.
The disciple's read: the Gentile category is not a fixed spiritual identity. The Gentile who repents is adopted in (cf. Eph. 2:11–22, the one new man of Paul); the Gentile who fights Zion is cut off (cf. 3 Ne. 16:10–15). The category is fluid; the choice is what determines the outcome. This is the Restoration's doctrine of adoptive election in seed.
The standing of the just (verses 13–15)
Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord shall lick up the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not be ashamed. For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah. — 2 Nephi 6:13
The people of the Lord are they who wait for him. The chapter offers a definition of the people of the Lord. They are the waiters. They are not, primarily, the blood-line; they are not, primarily, the visibly-organized; they are those who wait for the Messiah. The verse is eschatological. The disciple's identity is defined by the disciple's waiting for the coming of the Messiah. The doctrine is the same as Hebrews 11:13–16 (the patriarchs all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off).
The verse implicitly expands the people-of-the-Lord category. The Jewish covenant people who are waiting for the Messiah are included. The Christian covenant people who are waiting for the second coming are included. The Restoration covenant people who are waiting for the millennial advent are included. The category is Messiah-awaiting across all three modes. Wait is the defining covenant verb. He that endureth to the end (1 Ne. 22:31) is the same disciple as he that waiteth for the Lord.
And, behold, according to the words of the prophet, the Messiah will set himself again the second time to recover them; wherefore, he will manifest himself unto them in power and great glory, unto the destruction of their enemies, when that day cometh when they shall believe in him; and none will he destroy that believe in him. — 2 Nephi 6:14
The Second Coming is named in Jacob's voice. The Messiah will set himself again the second time. The doctrine of two advents — first coming in flesh (v. 9), second coming in power and great glory (v. 14) — is Brass-Plates Christology in temple-sermon form. The verse is consequential. The disciple is not surprised by the expectation of two advents; the two-advent doctrine is built into the prophetic tradition the BoM inherits. The Restoration preserves the two-advent doctrine intact. Compare D&C 1:11–14 (the voice of warning unto all people preparing for the second coming); D&C 45 (the second coming chapter); D&C 133.
And they that believe not in him shall be destroyed, both by fire, and by tempest, and by earthquakes, and by bloodsheds, and by pestilence, and by famine. And they shall know that the Lord is God, the Holy One of Israel. — 2 Nephi 6:15
The judgment-imagery — fire, tempest, earthquake, bloodshed, pestilence, famine — is the six-plague catalog characteristic of Isaianic and apocalyptic judgment-poetry (cf. Isa. 24; Rev. 6:8; D&C 45:31; D&C 87). The verse is eschatologically conventional. The purpose of the judgment is not destruction simpliciter — the verse says they shall know that the Lord is God. The judgment is epistemologically functional. Even those destroyed will know, in the destroying, that the Lord is God. The verse echoes Philippians 2:10–11 — every knee should bow… and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Even the destruction serves the knowing. The Lord's judgment is also a kind of revelation.
The captive set free (verses 16–18)
For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? — 2 Nephi 6:16
Jacob quotes Isaiah 49:24–25 — picking up where Nephi left off in 1 Nephi 21:24–26. The repetition is deliberate. The captive-deliverance verse is re-anchored in the temple sermon. Can the prey be taken from the mighty? Jacob's audience knows the answer from 1 Nephi 21: yes, by the Lord. Jacob re-affirms:
But thus saith the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people. For thus saith the Lord: I will contend with them that contendeth with thee — And I will feed them that oppress thee, with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. — 2 Nephi 6:17–18
The chapter closes by re-stating Isaiah 49:25–26. The Mighty One of Jacob — the same title that closed 1 Nephi 21 — closes 2 Nephi 6. The repetition is liturgical. The new-world temple congregation hears the same title the Lehite household heard. The Mighty One of Jacob is the same Person in both readings. The Christology is consistent across the whole sermon-arc. Chapter 7 will continue the Isaiah citations (Isa. 50); chapter 8 will continue (Isa. 51–52:2); chapter 9 will expound the Atonement in Jacob's own voice; chapter 10 will bring it home to the new-world covenant people. Chapter 6 is the anchor. Everything that follows is attached to the Mighty One of Jacob who closes this chapter.
The chapter's center is the intercessory-prayer doctrine of verse 11. The faithful's prayers preserve Israel through the dispersion. The whole gathering / scattering / judgment / redemption architecture orbits the prayers of the faithful. The chapter is teaching that the long-arc covenant project is carried by the daily intercessory prayer of the covenant disciples of every age. The disciple who prays for Israel is participating in the engine by which Israel is being preserved for the gathering. This is the most under-appreciated doctrine in the chapter.
How this sits in the literature of its time
Hidden providence
Two threads.
The first is that Jacob is establishing the temple-sermon as the BoM's primary preaching genre. King Benjamin will copy this template (Mosiah 2–5: temple gathering, Isaiah-saturated text, covenant renewal, new name, the disciple's grammar). Alma in Ammonihah will use the same form in adapted setting (Alma 12–13: priesthood credential, Christ's coming, the disciple's response). 3 Nephi 11–18 will be Christ's own temple sermon at Bountiful (gathering, sermon, covenant). The temple-sermon genre as the BoM's premier theological form begins here. Without 2 Nephi 6, there is no template for Benjamin's sermon, Alma's sermon, or Christ's sermon. The chapter is the architectural template for the BoM's most sacred discourse.
The second is that Jacob picks Isaiah 49:22–26 deliberately because it is the verse-cluster that has not yet been preached. Nephi read Isaiah 49 in full, but his exposition (1 Ne. 22) focused on the gathering through Gentile vessels in grand summary. Jacob is zooming in on one half of the same chapter — the second half — and preaching it differently. Same text, different angle, complementary truth. The chapter is teaching the disciple a practice of scripture-reading: the same verses, read at different occasions for different congregations, will yield different sermons. Isaiah is inexhaustible. Nephi and Jacob between them are modeling the practice of preaching the same scripture freshly. This is what the Restoration's living tradition of preaching does every week of the year.
Where this lands
Three practices follow.
First, honor the credential before the message. Jacob opens with called, ordained, consecrated. The disciple's preaching authority is not self-generated. The Restoration's every sacrament-meeting talk, every priesthood-blessing, every ordained office stands inside Jacob's three-fold credentialing. The disciple who speaks for God must have been called by God, ordained by the proper authority, and set apart to the specific office. The chapter is teaching that priesthood-authority is administrative — it flows through channels, it is conferred by hands, it is set apart by specific consecration. The disciple's relationship to spiritual authority is honored in this structure, not bypassed by personal charisma.
Second, pray as if Israel's preservation depends on it. Verse 11 says the dispersed of Israel are preserved by the prayers of the faithful. The doctrine has consequences. The disciple's daily intercessory prayer is not an optional devotional exercise; the disciple's prayers are part of the covenant-engine by which Israel is being kept through the dispersion for the gathering. The disciple who includes Israel in his prayers — Israel as the Jewish people; Israel as the lost tribes; Israel as the Lamanite remnant; Israel as the gathered Restoration — is participating in the engine the chapter names. The chapter is prayer-doctrine in gathering-context. Pray for Israel. The prayer is covenant-historically operative.
Third, be a waiter. Verse 13 names the people of the Lord as they who wait for him. The disciple's defining covenant verb is wait. Wait is not passive. Wait in Hebrew (qavah, related to tiqvah — hope) is active expectation under tension — like a bow drawn but not yet released. The disciple's waiting is the stance of the drawn bow — aimed at the coming, ready, taut, not yet shot. To wait for the Messiah is not to sit idle; it is to stand with the bow drawn, attentive to the day of the Lord. The chapter is making the disciple's daily attentiveness the chief covenant practice. The people of the Lord are they who wait for him. Be one of them.