Literature: I am intentionally repeating verse 30 so that it can be read in conjunction with verse 31, since Barney’s commentary on verse 30 is important in understanding how Nephi is using the term. However, Nephi’s point is not apparent until verse 31. After Isaiah’s passage—a satiric, nearly childish, mode of instructing the hard-hearted Israelites—verse 31 becomes serious in tone, explicitly condemning those who put their trust in human means and particularly condemning those who “hearken” to human philosophies. These verses following Nephi’s statements of woe, and verse 32 is yet another explicit woe-statement. Verse 30 opens with “cursed” rather than “wo,” but the tone is unquestionably a continuation of Nephi’s condemnation of the unrighteous. He has taken Isaiah’s satiric child-talk and turned it back upon the learned—or upon the rich and the learned, to follow Nephi’s term more closely. For Nephi, the simplicity of Yahweh’s teachings stands in contrast to those of men who are, by their prideful assertion, much more sophisticated. Nephi’s continues to condemn those who deny Yahweh and who are proud of their own learning. They may exalt themselves for their sophistication and deride Yahweh’s word as childish, yet it is that simple “line upon line, precept upon precept” that will ultimately save, not the self-proclaimed greater sophistication of the learning of men.
The phrase “maketh flesh his arm” is a variant of the more typical phrase, “trust in the arm of flesh” (2 Ne. 4:34). Here, “trust” is dropped, and the rest of the phrase is recast, but the meaning is the same. When one makes flesh his arm, the contrast is between the “arm” of man and the “arm” of God. In both cases, “arm” represents power or effectiveness. Even our best human efforts are powerless compared to Yahweh’s might. When we “make flesh” our arm, we are trusting in our own abilities rather than augmenting them by humbly relying on God.