2 Nephi 27:3-4

Brant Gardner

Our verses 3 and 4 quote Isaiah 29:7 through 9. When Orson Pratt versified the Book of Mormon, he attempted to keep quoted Isaiah chapters and verses as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible. That was not possible in this case because this is no simple quotation. It is a mixing of quotation and additional contextual explanation and examination. Therefore, we have two verses where the Bible has three.

Nephi also slightly modified Isaiah 29:7 to make it clear that this applies to nations which fight against Zion. Isaiah had used the more poetic “Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition.”

These verses envision those in the days before the appearance of the Book of Mormon. They are like one who is hungry and eats plenty in a dream, but the ephemeral food of the dream does not really satiate the hunger. The idea that the soul has an appetite refers to the spiritual yearnings natural to the soul that comes from God. In Nephi’s reading, that hunger will be filled with the Book of Mormon.

Book of Mormon Minute

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