At this point Nephi wanted to help the members of this colony, and especially his older brothers, appreciate God's great plan in bringing Lehi's family to America. Nephi therefore decided to read to them two great chapters from Isaiah. These might be called two magnificent watershed chapters of Isaiah. Chapter 48 describes the scattering of Israel to the four corners of the earth, and the 49th chapter described the gathering of all of Israel back to their homelands in modern times.
Nephi had seen a vision of both of these great monumental events in history and as the older brothers as well as the rest of the colony listened intently to these two chapters of scripture, it is likely that Nephi made comments as he went along to hold their interest, and we will do the same. As Wendell Noble narrates this 20th chapter of first Nephi we will add comments from time to time to help clarify some of these rather obscure passages. The first verse says:
As Joseph Smith was translating this verse the Spirit whispered to him that the "waters of Judah" actually meant the waters of baptism. This clarification now appears in the Book of Mormon version of this chapter. It is interesting that Joseph Smith made changes or modifications in 234 of the 433 verses of Isaiah which are quoted directly from the plates of Laban in the Book of Mormon.
We should mention that baptism among the Jews was once a very sacred initiatory ordinance and not merely an oblation ritual. In the days of Abraham, baptism was being neglected.1 The Lord therefore instigated the ordinance of circumcision of male children, who were to be circumcised on the eighth day to remind their parents that their children were to be baptized in their eight year. In this passage of the inspired version found in JST Genesis 17:5, the Lord says that children become accountable unto him and should be baptized at the age of eight.
Now the Jewish ordinance of baptism was described in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible as follows. Each candidate is taken to a pool in which he or she is stood up to the neck in water while the great commandments of the law were recited. The candidate promises to keep these commandments and then a benediction was pronounced. Finally the candidate was then plunged beneath the water, making certain that the individual was completely submerged.
Notice that this verse said that the Israelites entered the waters of baptism, but not in truth or righteous. In other words, they were becoming a nation of apostates.