The conclusion to the previous verses was that those on the isles of the sea would know of the death of the Messiah through the devastations of nature. Nephi then turns from his new land to that of the Old World. In Jerusalem, there were also after-effects of the death of the Savior. They did not have the same destruction in nature, but for them it was a destruction of their relationship to the God they crucified.
If a people reject their God, it might be surmised that their God would at least temporarily reject them. That is the prophet’s message. There was an effect wrought upon the children of Israel, they were no longer under God’s protection and therefore were left to “wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations.”
The meaning of the phrase “hiss and a byword” is clearly derisive. It suggests that they will be an object of scorn, and certainly the sad history of their treatment confirms that prophecy. The phrase itself is not found in the Bible, but that combination of words does appear in other books near Joseph Smith’s time, suggesting that it was a rather common phrase in his language environment.