Isaiah, speaking in the prophetic present tense (see commentary accompanying Jacob 4:13), announces the destruction of Palestine. They are not yet “dissolved” as Isaiah speaks; in fact, they might be rejoicing from their temporary salvation from the Assyrians. Nevertheless, Yahweh’s word will be fulfilled. Therefore, Isaiah “dissolves” them in the present tense.
The smoke from the north is an image of destruction. Fire is a part of ancient warfare.
Literature: “North” may be a symbolic direction as much as a cardinal one. Blenkinsopp has already noted that Isaiah’s description of the Assyrian invasion may “have suggested the mythical topos of ‘the foe from the north.’” Jeremiah associates Babylon with the north, even though it is technically northeast of Palestine:
Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jer. 25:9–11)
In this passage, Babylon—“all the families of the north”—will afflict Israel. In Jeremiah 47:1–4, additional affliction comes from the “north,” even though this invasion is geographically from the south (Egypt):
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
Thus saith the Lord; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the Lord will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
Since the Egyptians could not have assaulted Gaza or Palestine from the literal north, it seems to be a metaphor meaning an ill-omened direction, the direction from which bad things come. (See also Isa. 41:25; Jer. 4:6, 6:22, 13:20, 50:41, 51:48.)
2 Nephi 24:32
32 What shall then answer the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
When these prophecies are fulfilled, the world will understand that Yahweh is protecting his people. This triumphal Lord will bring peace and safety to his people—in itself a reversal from their historical trials. By implication, the nations who send messengers seeking succor may also enter into Yahweh’s protection if they too become part of Zion.
Likening: Verse 1 declares “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.” Nephi would have seen this verse speaking directly to his people. The restoration of his people to their lands has been one of his themes. (See commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 19:24.) The remainder of the chapter is the ultimate victory of the Messiah, a victory that will occur for the enemies of the Nephites as well.
These general “likenings” will be expanded in Nephi’s recounting of his vision in 2 Nephi 25–30. In addition to the ways in which the specific chapters could be applied to his people, Nephi will extract specific information to provide a scriptural backdrop to his own vision of the future of his people, a vision that saw not only the future of his people, but the coming of the Atoning Messiah.
Text: The chapter ends here in the 1830 edition.