Where we are
After the long allegory of chapter 5, Jacob does what a good teacher does: he turns from the picture to the people in front of him. He's just walked them through Zenos and the whole history of Israel as a vineyard. Now he lifts their eyes off the allegory and lands it on their own day and their own choice. The chapter is short — thirteen verses — but it's the hinge between the great prophecy and the question that prophecy was always driving at: so what will you do?
It moves in three short steps: he closes out the allegory and the promise that the Lord will set his hand again a second time (vv. 1–7), he pleads with them to cleave to God and come with full purpose of heart (vv. 8–12), and he says goodbye until the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah (v. 13).
Three lines carry the chapter. Verse 3 sets the harvest in two columns — how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place. Verse 5 gives the whole charge in a phrase — cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And verse 13 ends on the image Jacob shares with Nephi and Moroni — the pleasing bar of God, the same bar that striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear.
The allegory's conclusion (verses 1–7)
And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy — that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive-tree, must surely come to pass. — Jacob 6:1
Jacob puts his own weight behind Zenos: these things must surely come to pass. He's not just passing along an old prophecy; he's testifying it's true and it's coming. It's the same confidence Peter has when he calls prophecy a more sure word (2 Pet. 1:19) — a living prophet vouching for an older one, and anchoring it in the future it points to.
And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh. — Jacob 6:2
Set his hand again the second time — that's Isaiah's phrase (Isa. 11:11), and Nephi has already used it twice (2 Ne. 21:11; 25:17). It points at the Restoration: the Lord reaching out a second time to gather. And notice who does the gathering — the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power. That's the Great Commission in seed (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8), the missionary force sent out with power, generations before there were apostles to send.
And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the world shall be burned with fire. — Jacob 6:3
Here's the harvest in two columns. Blessed are the ones who labored; cast out are the ones who didn't. The line that splits them isn't bloodline or membership — it's labor. Jesus draws the same line: the righteous shine forth as the sun, the rest are cast into a furnace of fire (Matt. 13:42–43).
And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God. — Jacob 6:4
And then mercy, set right against stubbornness. The Lord stretches forth his hands all the day long to a people who keep refusing him. That's almost word for word what Isaiah said — I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people (Isa. 65:2) — and exactly what Paul will quote back to Israel (Rom. 10:21). The picture is a parent standing in the doorway with arms open while the child looks away. But the door doesn't close on everyone: as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved. It comes down to the heart, not the heritage.
The exhortation (verses 5–12)
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. — Jacob 6:5
Here is the heart of the chapter, and it's worth slowing down on the symmetry: cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. He's already holding on to you. The whole charge is just to hold on back. It's the old covenant command — to him shalt thou cleave (Deut. 10:20; 11:22) — and the very thing Barnabas found in the new church at Antioch, where with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord (Acts 11:23).
Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die? — Jacob 6:6
Today. Jacob reaches for Psalm 95 — today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts — the line Hebrews will lean on hard (Heb. 3:7–4:7), and then he tacks on Ezekiel's ache, why will ye die? (Ezek. 33:11). The day of decision is always now. Now is the accepted time, Paul says; now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). Not later, when it's convenient. Now.
For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire? — Jacob 6:7
And being fed doesn't excuse you. A tree that's been nourished all the day long and still bears bad fruit gets cut down anyway. John the Baptist puts the axe right at the root: every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matt. 3:10; 7:19). Privilege raises the stakes; it doesn't lower them.
Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? — Jacob 6:8
Now the questions come fast, and they pile up on purpose — words, prophets, Christ, the power of God, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the plan of redemption. He's listing everything a person would have to throw away to walk off, and the listing makes the leaving sound as total as it is. Hebrews names the same cliff: to fall away after all that is to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh (Heb. 6:4–6; 10:29). And watch the one verb in the middle — quench the Holy Spirit. You don't argue the Spirit away; you put it out, like a flame. Paul says it straight: quench not the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19); grieve not the holy Spirit of God (Eph. 4:30).
Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God? And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment. — Jacob 6:9–10
And here's where the road runs if you take it. The same redemption that brings the disciple home brings the rejecter to the bar with shame and awful guilt — because justice cannot be denied. The image of the smoke that ascendeth up forever and ever is straight out of John's Revelation (14:11). It's the same bar other Book of Mormon prophets keep pointing at (2 Ne. 9:14, 16; Mosiah 3:25; Alma 11:43–44) — one bar, two completely different mornings, depending on how you lived.
O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. — Jacob 6:11
So he names the other road. Repent, go in at the strait gate, and keep walking the narrow way — Jesus' own image (Matt. 7:13–14), one Nephi used too (2 Ne. 31:9, 18). Notice it's not just entering; it's continuing. The gate is a start, not a finish.
O be wise; what can I say more? — Jacob 6:12
And then this — maybe the most human line in the chapter. O be wise; what can I say more? You can almost hear him run out of words. He has said everything a prophet can say, and the rest isn't his to do. At some point the words stop and the choosing begins — the same hard truth in Jesus' parable, that people who won't hear the prophets won't be persuaded, though one rose from the dead (Lk. 16:31).
Jacob's farewell — the pleasing bar (verse 13)
Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen. — Jacob 6:13
And then he says goodbye — not for now, but until the bar. I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God. The same bar he just called terrible for the wicked he now calls pleasing, because for the one who cleaved (v. 5) it will be. Same bar, two faces. Jacob isn't the only prophet who ends this way; it's a thread that runs through the whole book.
That phrase, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear, is the whole point in miniature: the bar doesn't change — the person standing at it does. The disposition you bring is what makes it pleasing or terrible. Paul saw the same thing in how the gospel itself lands on people — to some the savour of death unto death, to others the savour of life unto life (2 Cor. 2:16). Same word, opposite endings.
How the chapter is built
Three panels. Verses 1–4 close the allegory and lay out the harvest in two columns. Verses 5–12 are the plea — cleave, repent, choose now, with that long string of will ye? questions. And verse 13 is the farewell at the bar. The center of it all is verse 5: cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. Everything else is either the ground for that charge or the stakes riding on it.
And listen to how Jacob preaches it — almost entirely in questions. Will ye reject? Will ye deny? Will ye quench? Why will ye die? What can I say more? It's the same pressure Jeremiah used, indicting a people by asking them things they can't comfortably answer (Jer. 2:5–37). The questions don't inform; they corner. They make the listener do the math out loud in his own head.
How this sits in the literature of its time
Hidden providence
Three threads worth pulling on.
The first is that little word in verse 5, cleave, and how much marriage is packed into it. Davaq is the verb for a husband cleaving to a wife (Gen. 2:24), and it runs straight through the covenant law (Deut. 10:20; 11:22) into the early church (Acts 11:23). Read that way, the disciple's bond with the Lord isn't a contract; it's a marriage — you cling, he clings back, and neither lets go. Paul will eventually call that exact thing a great mystery... concerning Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31–32). Jacob is teaching the marriage six centuries early.
The second is the bar in verse 13, and the company it keeps. Nephi promised to meet his readers there (2 Ne. 33:11); Jacob promises it here; Moroni will promise it on the very last page (Moro. 10:34). Three prophets, the same appointment, across the whole length of the record. Reading their words is, in a quiet way, making a date with each of them — and the only question the bar asks is whether you cleaved.
The third is that pile-up of rejections in verses 8–10. Words, prophets, Christ, power, Spirit, plan — Jacob lists what total apostasy costs, and it's the same warning Hebrews will give wavering Christians: there's a falling-away after the light that crucifies the Son afresh (Heb. 6:4–6; 10:26–29). Same Spirit sounding the same alarm, generations apart, in two corners of the covenant world.
Where this lands
Three things to carry out of it.
First, cleave — and check what's competing. Verse 5 isn't an idea; it's a daily posture. So look at your day and ask honestly whether anything has been pulling at the grip that should be on the Lord. If something has, name it and set it down. Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us (Heb. 12:1). Cleaving is something you do every day, not once.
Second, labor — don't spectate. Verse 3 blesses the ones who labored diligently in his vineyard. Whatever your patch of the vineyard is — your family, your calling, your ministering, your work — work it like a laborer, not a bystander. Serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength (D&C 4:3–4).
Third, live toward the bar. Jacob says goodbye until he meets you there (v. 13), so let that meeting shape today. Make the small decisions the way you'd want to have made them when you finally stand there. The bar is coming; live now the way you'll wish you had lived then.