The Book of Mormon retains the words “of Zion” (v. 5). This is consistent with the beginning of the verse, and it suggests the protection of Zion and her stakes in a day when the world is in turmoil. For a fuller description of this time see Doctrine and Covenants 45:63–75 and 84:2–5. The latter of these passages identifies the cloud as “the glory of the Lord.” The cloud “upon her assemblies” (v. 5) shows there is more than one place for the gathering of the Saints. This is consistent with the Lord’s admonition to “stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly” (D&C 87:8). It is also consistent with the following prophecy given by Joseph Smith:
The time is soon coming, when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes. I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said that the mother shall be against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand. [TPJS, 161]
According to Oliver Cowdery, when the angel Moroni appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in September 1823, he quoted Isaiah 4:5–6 as one of the prophecies which was soon to be fulfilled.
Elder Orson Pratt taught that the cloud which Isaiah said would protect Zion and her stakes will be literal and will be even as the cloud which watched over Moses and the children of Israel (see his quotation under “General Authority Quotations”) .
The Lord uses the words of these verses from Isaiah in describing the latter-day Church.
4 For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
5 Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations;
6 And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth. [D&C 115:4–6; see also 124:36 and 45:63–75 cited above; italics added]
When Jesus visited the Nephites he commanded that the words of Isaiah be searched (3 Nephi 23:1–2). He said:
11 Ye remember that I spake unto you, and said that when the words of Isaiah should be fulfilled—behold they are written, ye have them before you, therefore search them—
12 And verily, verily, I say unto you, that when they shall be fulfilled then is the fulfilling of the covenant which the Father hath made unto his people, O house of Israel.
13 And then shall the remnants, which shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, be gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the south and from the north; and they shall be brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them. [3 Nephi 20:11–13]
There are many other prophecies of Isaiah that are applicable to the covenants of the Lord to Israel, but the chapters written by Nephi that we have just discussed are certainly a part of “the covenants of the Lord which he made to our fathers” (Isaiah 11:5).