Where we are
Jacob's temple sermon now reads Isaiah 51 in its entirety, plus the first two verses of Isaiah 52. The chapter is among the most exhortatively-energetic in all of Isaiah — hearken, look, lift up your eyes, hearken to me, awake, awake, awake again. The imperatives stack. The chapter is calling Israel out of exilic stupor into covenant alertness. It is Isaiah at his most pastoral — Israel is asleep; Israel must wake.
For Jacob's New World audience, the chapter is layered. The Lehite household has itself just come out of Babylonian-Jerusalem; the chapter's awake-from-exile call lands on people who have already physically woken. But the chapter also lands on people who carry interior Babylon into the new world — the forgetful disciple, the covenant-distracted disciple, the disciple who has stopped looking unto the rock from whence he was hewn. The chapter functions as post-exilic spiritual catechesis for a covenant people in any era. Joseph Smith inherits the chapter as the call to awake the latter-day Saints — the language awake and arise and put on thy strength echoes through D&C 113, D&C 117, and Brigham Young's pioneer exhortations.
The chapter has three movements. Verses 1–8 are the first call — look to Abraham, look to Sarah, listen to me, lift up your eyes. Verses 9–16 are the Lord's awakening — awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Verses 17–23 are Jerusalem's awakening — awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury. The two-verse opening of Isaiah 52 then closes with the third awake — awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. The chapter's structure is three awakenings — the Lord's arm, Jerusalem, Zion. Each is summoned to stand up from a different posture of down-lying.
Look unto the rock (verses 1–3)
Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged. — 2 Nephi 8:1
Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn. The image is quarry-work. Hewn from the rock — Hebrew chutzavtem mi-tzur. The disciple is asked to look backward at the source-stone. The metaphor is Abrahamic. The next verse will name the rock — look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you. The rock is Abraham. The pit from which ye are digged is Sarah.
This is one of Isaiah's most theologically loaded origin-metaphors. You are stones hewn from Abraham; you are pit-dug from Sarah. The disciple's identity is located in the patriarchal-matriarchal stone-work. The verse is covenant-genealogical. The disciple is not a self-made stone; the disciple is chiseled from the patriarchal rock. The doctrine is the same as 1 Peter 2:5 — ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. The stones in 1 Peter are cut from the same quarry Isaiah names. The Restoration's temple-stone imagery (cf. D&C 124's cornerstone language) is the same lineage.
Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him. — 2 Nephi 8:2
I called him alone. The verse names Abraham's solitary call. Alone — Hebrew echad (one) — emphasizes that Abraham was a single person when the covenant began. The disciple is being consoled by the origin-narrative. Your covenant family began with one couple. If the covenant could expand from one to nations, it can expand from your present small remnant to a great people in your latter day. The verse is theological consolation. The Lehite remnant is small; the verse says Abraham was smaller — he was one. The chapter is promising that the Lord multiplies small remnants.
For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. — 2 Nephi 8:3
Comfort Zion. The consolation-grammar of Isaiah 40 (comfort ye, comfort ye my people) is re-invoked. Zion's waste places will be comforted. The wilderness will be Eden. The desert will be the garden of the Lord. The verse is eschatological-restoration in garden-imagery. Eden lost in Genesis 3 is restored in Isaiah 51 is fulfilled in Revelation 22. The arc of garden lost, garden re-planted, garden eternal runs from Genesis to Revelation and Isaiah 51:3 is the structural midpoint.
The Lehite-specific reading: the new world is itself a wilderness (in the literal sense — the New World was wilderness relative to Old World cultivation); the Lord is making the new wilderness an Eden by planting the covenant household in it. The chapter is labeling the new-world covenant land with Edenic vocabulary. Compare 1 Nephi 18:25 — the Eden-grade enumeration of the new land's animals and metals. The chapter is Isaiah 51:3 enacted geographically.
My salvation goeth forth (verses 4–8)
Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. — 2 Nephi 8:4
A law shall proceed from me. The Lord's judgment will go forth as a light to the people. The verse is the Sinai-grammar generalized. The law that came down at Sinai for Israel will go forth as light for the nations. The verse anticipates the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31–34 (I will put my law in their inward parts) and the fulfillment in Acts 2 (Pentecost — the Spirit empowering the proclamation of the law-fulfilling-Christ to all the world). The Restoration application: the Restoration's gospel-proclamation is Isaiah 51:4 enacted. The law — the gospel — goes forth from the Lord to every nation. The doctrine is the same as Matthew 24:14 — and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.
My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. — 2 Nephi 8:5
The isles shall wait upon me. The verse re-uses isles (iyyim) imagery already invoked in Isaiah 49:1. The Lehite household is the isle; the isles wait. The verse is direct to the Lehite reading. The chapter is teaching that the isles' waiting is covenant-functional. The isle of Lehi waits upon the Lord; the Lord's arm is trusted. Compare 2 Nephi 10:20 — we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea. Jacob (in chapter 10) will quote the isle-doctrine back to his audience after reading Isaiah 51:5. The two passages are interlocked.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. — 2 Nephi 8:6
Heavens shall vanish like smoke; earth shall wax old like a garment. The chapter names cosmic temporality. The visible creation is garment-grade — it wears out. The Lord's salvation is eternal. The verse is theological proportion. The disciple is being asked to re-anchor his trust on the eternal rather than the temporary. Compare 1 Peter 1:24–25 (Peter quoting Isaiah) — all flesh is as grass… but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Compare 2 Peter 3:10 — the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
The disciple's modern application: the things the disciple is most anxious about — financial markets, political institutions, even the physical body itself — are garment-grade. They will wear out. The disciple's trust should be anchored on what does not wear out. The verse is the theological cure for materialism. Salvation is eternal; material possessions are temporary; the disciple's investment should be proportional to the durations.
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. — 2 Nephi 8:7
The people in whose heart I have written my law. The verse is new-covenant grammar centuries before Jeremiah 31:31–34. The law is not on external stone; the law is written on the heart. The chapter is anticipating the new-covenant doctrine Jeremiah will articulate. The Brass Plates already carried the interior-law doctrine. The disciple's covenant identity is internal. The Lord's commandments are not external constraints on the disciple's autonomous will; the Lord's commandments are internal articulations of the disciple's deepest desire. The new-covenant disciple desires what the Lord commands because the disciple's heart has been re-written.
Fear ye not the reproach of men. The verse instructs the interior-law disciple to disregard external opposition. The covenant is internal; external opposition has no authority over what is internal. Compare Matthew 10:28 — fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. The chapter is teaching the disciple the psychology of covenant fidelity under social pressure. External reproach is non-determinative once the internal law is operative.
Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord (verses 9–11)
Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? — 2 Nephi 8:9
The chapter's first of three awakenings. Awake, awake — Hebrew uri, uri — intensive doubled imperative. The prayer is to the Lord's arm. The disciple prays the arm to wake from apparent slumber and act as in the ancient days.
Rahab and the dragon are creation-myth references. Rahab (Heb. Rahav) is the sea-monster the Lord defeated at creation (cf. Ps. 89:10; Job 26:12). The dragon (tannin) is the deep-sea chaos-creature the Lord bound at the world's making. The verse is cosmic-historical. The Lord who defeated chaos at creation is the same Lord who can defeat Babylon at the exile-end. The verse is theology by cosmic precedent. You did it at the beginning; do it again now.
The disciple's application: prayer for divine action can invoke the Lord's prior demonstrated power. You delivered Israel from Egypt; deliver me from this Egypt. You raised Christ from the dead; raise this dead situation in my life. The chapter is modeling the prayer-grammar of cosmic-precedent. The disciple reminds the Lord of what He has done; the disciple asks the Lord to do it again. This is not manipulation; this is covenant-trust exercised in prayer.
Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? — 2 Nephi 8:10
The Red Sea precedent. You dried the sea for the ransomed to pass over. The verse re-invokes Exodus 14. The disciple's prayer-rationale: the Lord who made the sea a way for the ransomed is the same Lord who can make a way for the new ransomed. The verse is typological. Every deliverance in the disciple's life is typologically a Red Sea crossing. The Lord's prior deliverance is the warrant for current trust.
Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy and holiness shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and mourning shall flee away. — 2 Nephi 8:11
The redeemed of the Lord shall return. The verse is the gathering-promise in hymn-form. Come with singing unto Zion; everlasting joy upon their heads. The verse is programmatic for hymnody. The singing of the redeemed — the songs of Zion — is covenant-functional. The disciple's worship in song is prophetically prescribed. Restoration hymns inherit this verse — redeemer of Israel, come, come, ye saints, the Spirit of God. Each is a fulfillment of Isaiah 51:11. The chapter is making singing a covenant duty. The disciple who sings the songs of Zion is participating in the prophecy.
The forgotten Maker (verses 12–16)
I am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you. Behold, who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of man, who shall die, and of the son of man, who shall be made as grass. — 2 Nephi 8:12
The Lord answers the awaken-the-arm prayer with a re-assertion. I am he that comforteth you. The doctrine: the arm has not slumbered; the Lord is already comforting; the disciple's fear of mortal man is the issue, not the Lord's inactivity. The verse is gentle reframe. The disciple's prayer for the Lord to wake up is answered by the Lord saying I never slept; you were afraid of grass-men instead of trusting me.
And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? — 2 Nephi 8:13
Forgettest the Lord thy Maker. The forgetting is the chapter's diagnostic. Israel forgets the Lord; Israel fears the oppressor; the oppressor seems large because the Lord has been forgotten. The doctrine of covenant-amnesia (Heb. shakhach) recurs throughout the BoM (cf. 1 Ne. 18:9 — shakhach before the storm; Mosiah 1:5 — for which cause king Benjamin took pains to preserve them, that they might be read). Memory is covenant-defense. Forgetting is covenant-decay. The chapter is teaching that the disciple's fear of the world is the symptom; the cause is forgetting the Maker. The cure is remembrance — sacrament, scripture, temple, prayer — every liturgical practice that re-presents the Lord-as-Maker to the disciple's consciousness.
The cup of trembling (verses 17–20)
The chapter's second awakening addresses Jerusalem herself.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury — thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out. — 2 Nephi 8:17
The cup of trembling. Hebrew is kos ha-tar'elah — cup of staggering/reeling. Jerusalem has drunk the Lord's wrath like wine poured out for her to drink. The image is judicial. Cup as the measure of wrath recurs in Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15–17, Habakkuk 2:16, Ezekiel 23:31–34, and most consequentially in Christ's Gethsemane prayer — let this cup pass from me (Matt. 26:39; Mk. 14:36; Lk. 22:42). The cup Christ asks to be removed in Gethsemane is the cup of fury of Isaiah 51:17. Christ drinks the cup Israel had drunk. Christ drinks the cup the disciple deserves. The Atonement is the cup-transfer. The chapter is naming the cup that Christ will drink six centuries in advance.
The Lehite-specific application: Jerusalem has drunk the cup; the Lehites are not in Jerusalem; the Lehites have been spared the cup-drinking by the Lord's removal of the household before the conquest. The chapter is retroactively reminding the covenant household that the Lord's removal of them was a cup-mercy. The disciple's preservation from suffering is covenant-mercy; the suffering of others is covenant-cup. The disciple should not be smug about the sparing; the disciple should be grateful and intercessory for those who drink the cup (cf. 2 Ne. 6:11's prayers of the faithful).
These two sons are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee — thy desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword — and by whom shall I comfort thee? — 2 Nephi 8:19
The verse anthropomorphizes the disasters as two sons — desolation, destruction, famine, sword (four named, two-sons formula in Hebrew sometimes treats parallel pairs as a unit). The image is of Jerusalem as a mother whose sons have died in battle. The verse is deeply tender. The Lord is not gloating over Jerusalem's suffering; the Lord is grieving with the bereaved mother. The doctrine is the same as Moses 7:28–37 (the Lord weeping over the choices of His children). The chapter's judgment-language is paired with the Lord's grief. The Lord administers the discipline and suffers in the administering.
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, and not with wine: — 2 Nephi 8:21
Drunken, and not with wine. The verse qualifies the drunkenness. Jerusalem is staggering, but not from wine; Jerusalem is staggering from the cup of the Lord's fury. The disciple's modern application: the disciple can be drunk on things other than alcohol. Drunk on grief; drunk on anxiety; drunk on the cup of accumulated suffering. The verse names the non-alcoholic drunkenness of the covenant disciple in extreme affliction. The Lord recognizes the condition; the Lord speaks to the condition; the Lord promises the cup will pass.
The cup taken away (verses 22–23)
Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of his people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again. — 2 Nephi 8:22
The Lord removes the cup from Jerusalem's hand. Thou shalt no more drink it again. The verse is the Gospel in seed. The cup is taken away. The Atonement is here, in advance of itself. Christ in Gethsemane prays let this cup pass from me; the prayer is answered by the cup not passing from Christ but passing from the disciple. The cup is drunk — by Christ — so that it is no longer drunk by the disciple. The Lord takes the cup out of the disciple's hand by taking it into His own.
The Lehite household reading: the cup of fury that Jerusalem drank (Babylonian conquest, AD 70 conquest, the long dispersion) is not what the Lehite covenant remnant must drink. The covenant family of Lehi will drink different cups — eight years in the wilderness, internal family schism, eventual destruction at Cumorah; but not the same cup as Jerusalem. The chapter is teaching covenant-specific cup-allocation. Each covenant family drinks the cup the Lord allocates to it; some cups the Lord removes; some cups the Lord himself drinks for the family.
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over — and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. — 2 Nephi 8:23
The transfer. The cup goes to the afflicters. The verse is theodicy. The Lord's justice is not abolished by His mercy; the cup is transferred, not destroyed. Those who made Israel lie down as a street will themselves drink the cup. The doctrine is the same as Romans 12:19 — vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. The disciple is not asked to administer the vengeance; the disciple is asked to trust the Lord's cup-transfer. The Lord will repay — on His schedule, by His method. The disciple's role is to trust and to not retaliate.
Awake, O Zion (verses 24–25 — Isaiah 52:1–2)
The chapter's third awakening — the most luminous of the three.
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. — 2 Nephi 8:24
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. The third doubled-imperative. Put on thy strength — Hebrew livshi uzzekh — clothe thyself in your strength. The image is of getting dressed for a great occasion. Strength is a garment to be put on. Compare Ephesians 6:11 — put on the whole armour of God. Compare D&C 27:15–18 (the Ephesians armor re-given in Restoration revelation). The disciple's strength is not interior-grown; the disciple's strength is received and put on like a garment. Zion is clothed in strength by getting dressed.
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The beautiful garments (Heb. bigdei tif'arah) are priestly garments. Aaron's garments of glory and beauty (Ex. 28:2) are the same lexical family. The verse is priestly-clothing imagery. Jerusalem is being asked to dress in priestly garments. The Restoration application is direct: the holy-temple garments of the Restored Endowment are Isaiah 52:1's beautiful garments in participatory form. The disciple puts on the garments — physically in the temple, symbolically in daily discipleship — and participates in Zion's priestly clothing.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. — 2 Nephi 8:25
Shake thyself from the dust. The captive sits in the dust of captivity-shame (cf. 1 Sam. 2:8 — He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; Lam. 3:29 — He putteth his mouth in the dust). Shake thyself is self-action — the captive must do the shaking. The Lord commands the captive to shake. The deliverance requires the captive's participation. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck — the iron yoke is to be removed by the captive's own hand. The Lord makes the loosing possible; the captive does the loosing.
This is one of the chapter's most active discipleship lines. The Lord's liberation does not happen to a passive captive. The Lord invites the captive; the captive must respond. Shake. Arise. Sit down (sit in the seat of dignity, not in the dust of shame). Loose the neck-bands. The verbs are all imperatives addressed to the captive. The disciple's salvation requires the disciple's participation. The Lord does not deliver the unwilling; the Lord delivers the willing who shake the dust off and loose the neck-bands in response to the summons.
The chapter has three centers — the three awakenings. This is unusual; most chiastic structures have one center. The triple structure is itself the chapter's theological argument: the awakening happens in three places at once. The Lord's arm awakens (cosmic-redemptive action), Jerusalem awakens (corporate-covenant recovery), Zion awakens (priestly-eschatological participation). All three are needed; all three are summoned. The disciple participates in each of the three awakenings — praying for the Lord's arm to act, recovering as the covenant people from the cup of suffering, clothing himself in priestly garments and shaking off the dust. The chapter is triple-action covenant-recovery.
How this sits in the literature of its time
Hidden providence
Two threads.
The first is that the chapter sets up Jacob's exposition of the Atonement in chapter 9 by reading the cup-imagery into Jewish covenant history first. Chapter 9 will be the first sustained Atonement-doctrine in the BoM (and one of the most concentrated in all scripture). Jacob is establishing the cup-language in chapter 8 so that chapter 9 can use it. The cup that Jerusalem drank, the cup that Christ takes from Jerusalem's hand, the cup that Christ Himself drinks in Gethsemane, the cup that is transferred from the disciple to the afflicters — all these are chapter 8 material. Chapter 9 will assume the cup-doctrine and develop the Atonement around it. The chapter is exegetical preparation for Jacob's most important sermon.
The second is that the three awakenings of chapter 8 are the BoM's earliest layered description of the threefold gathering of the latter days. The Lord's arm awakening is the cosmic-redemptive action (the Restoration as an act of God in history); Jerusalem's awakening is the covenant-people recovery (the gathering of Israel proper); Zion's awakening is the priestly-temple-participatory clothing (the disciple putting on the priestly garments and joining the worship). All three happen together in the Restoration. Joseph Smith's calling is the Lord's arm acting; the gathering of the modern Saints is Jerusalem awakening; the temple-endowment and the daily wearing of priestly garments is Zion clothing itself in beautiful garments. The chapter's triple structure is the Restoration's structure in Isaian prophecy in Jacob's New World temple sermon twenty-five centuries before the Restoration. This is one of the chapter's deepest hidden providences — the structure of the latter-day work is embedded in the prophetic-poetic architecture of the chapter Jacob read in 559 BC.
Where this lands
Three practices follow.
First, look unto the rock when the disciple feels small. The Lehite remnant is small; the disciple feels small. The chapter's response is look at Abraham — I called him alone. The disciple is reminded that the covenant has always begun with one. One faithful disciple is enough for the Lord's purposes. The Restoration began with one fourteen-year-old in a grove. The Christian gospel began with one born in a Bethlehem manger. The Abrahamic covenant began with one called out of Ur. The chapter is teaching the disciple to find courage in the smallness. Smallness is not insufficiency; smallness is the beginning the Lord prefers.
Second, remember the Maker as the cure for fear of grass-men. Verse 13 names forgetting the Maker as the root cause of fearing the oppressor. The disciple's modern fears — of political opposition, of cultural marginalization, of economic precarity, of social ostracism — are grass-man fears. The cure is remembering the Maker. The disciple's daily remembrance (sacrament, scripture, prayer, temple) is not an optional devotional luxury; it is the fear-management technology the chapter prescribes. The disciple who daily remembers the Maker will not fear grass-men. The disciple who forgets the Maker will find oppressors enormous. The cause is interior; the cure is interior.
Third, participate in all three awakenings. The chapter is triple imperative. The disciple's prayer should include the Lord's arm awakening (intercession for cosmic-historical action); the disciple's covenant identity should include Jerusalem's awakening (active gathering of self and family back to the covenant from whatever cup-suffering each has drunk); the disciple's worship should include Zion's awakening (putting on priestly garments, shaking off the dust of self-shame, sitting in the seat of dignity). Pray. Recover. Clothe. The three actions are covenant-essential. The chapter is prescribing them all.