2 Nephi 13 corresponds to Isaiah 3. Even though post-1879 editions of the modern Book of Mormon follow the KJV Isaiah in locating chapter breaks, these verses are presented in the 1830 edition as part of the same unit. Chapter 13 is a continuation of the material in chapter 12—Jerusalem’s apocalyptic destruction.
“Stay” and “staff” are means of support. “Stay” is sustenance, and “staff” is support. I read “staff” here as social structure. The next verse lists social supports that Yahweh will remove from Jerusalem. Victor Ludlow explains:
In ancient Hebrew, the words “stay” and “staff”… are the masculine and feminine forms of the same root, masen and masenah. By using both forms, Isaiah seems to suggest complete destruction—spiritual, social, and physical. Thus the prophet’s language and imagery carry many implications beyond the threat of physical famine.
The threat of physical famine is most obvious. Removing the staff or support from a nation is analogous to suddenly taking away the props or stakes of a tent—the tent collapses shapeless on the ground. “The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water” might be taken literally, since at both the first and second desolations of Jerusalem, the city was besieged and was at the mercy of a devastating famine. Jeremiah records in the seventh century B.C. that “the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land” (Jer. 52:6).
Comparison: Isaiah reads “the whole stay of bread.” In this verse we have “the whole staff of bread.” While this appears to be a simple substitution based on the presence of staff in the preceding phrase, Skousen notes that the Book of Mormon form creates a short chiasm stay/staff/staff/stay that is not present in the KJV Isaiah.