Cannibalism is the pinnacle of depravity. This deplorable condition was also prophesied by Moses. When Moses was about to bring the people into the land of Canaan, he repeated the promises of the Lord to the people. He also repeated the punishments that they would suffer if they rejected the Lord. These curses are contained in Deuteronomy 28 and very closely reflect the prophecies of destruction that Isaiah has been proclaiming.
’The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption…and with an extreme burning, and with the sword…
The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies…and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth….
Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword…
The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth…a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young…
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters’ (Deut 28:22,25,37,49-50,53)
“Jesus Christ was crucified, the Apostles were put to death, and most every man who bore the Priesthood was slain, excepting John the Revelator… These men laid down their lives, and the judgments of God overtook the Jewish nation, in fulfillment of the predictions of the Savior and the Prophets. Moses told them in his day, ’And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee.’ All this came to pass, and the kingdom was taken from the earth, the holy Priesthood was taken up to God, who gave it, and the Church went into the wilderness, and there remained until the day set for its restoration to the world.” (Brian H. Stuy, ed., Collected Discourses, 5 vols. [Burbank, Calif., and Woodland Hills, Ut.: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987-1992], vol. 3, Oct. 9, 1892)
2 Nephi 20 The Lord uses the king of Assyria to destroy Israel but protects Judah from Assyrian conquest
This chapter of Isaiah is much easier to understand after reading 2 Kings 18-19. These chapters give the historical background for the conflict between the king of Assyria and Hezekiah, the king of Judah. They also show the relationship between Hezekiah and Isaiah. Many doctrinal themes contained in chapter 20 are also found in 2 Kings.
2 Nephi 20 Isaiah uses the Hebrew form of poetry called chiasmus
Many of Isaiah’s prophecies and many other prophecies in the Book of Mormon use chiasmus. The significance of this poetic form is that it emphasizes the center concept in a crescendo-decrescendo fashion. The doctrinal climax is found in the middle. This chapter is a good example of how the most important concept is emphasized by the arrangement of the text.
"After his fourfold warning to Israel, Isaiah continues his discourse in the form of a poetic prophecy. He gives warning to both Assyria and Israel in a poem structured in introverted parallelism (chiasmus). The poem encompasses the entire chapter and can be outlined as follows:
A. The wicked will bow down (vs. 1-4)
B. Assyria raised by the Lord (5)
C. The Assyrian king speaks against Jerusalem (6-11)
D. The Lord will punish proud Assyria (12-14)
E. An ax is used as a tool (15)
F. The Lord is a burning fire in the land (16-17)
G. Out of all the shrubs—only a remnant remains (18-19)
H. A remnant of Israel shall return to the Lord (20-21)
G.’ Out of the “sands of the sea”—only a remnant returns (22)
F.’ A divine consumption is in the land (23)
E.’ A rod is used as an instrument (24-26)
D.‘ Assyria’s yoke will be lifted (27)
C.’ Assyrian army approaches Jerusalem (28-32)
B.’ Assyria humbled by the Lord (33)
A.’ The haughty will be cut down (34)"
(Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet, by Victor L. Ludlow, p. 161)
“If chiasmus can be convincingly identified in the Book of Mormon, it will testify of the book’s ancient origin. No one in America, let alone in western New York, fully understood chiasmus in 1830. Joseph Smith had been dead ten full years before John Forbes’s book was published in Scotland…If the Book of Mormon is found to contain true chiastic forms in an ancient style, then is not the book’s own repeated claim to be the product or an ancient culture veritably substantiated?” (John W. Welch, Book of Mormon Authorship, 41-42 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 154)