Nephi began this chapter in sadness and leaves it with some hope. He prays that “many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great day.” The hope is that there will be some hope. The sadness is that he seems sure that not all will find hope. Even in his day, not all of his people follow the doctrine of Christ.
True to form, Nephi echoes Isaiah, and speaks as one crying from the dust. Isaiah prophesied that “thy speech shall whisper out of the dust” (Isaiah 29:4, which Nephi quoted in 2 Nephi 26:16). What Nephi taught came from Jehovah, and, therefore, stands as a witness against those who heard that voice, but rejected it.
The reference to speaking from the dust shifts the reference from his day to ours. Nephi had indicated that his people might reject the written word and warns that the same condemnation might come upon his future audience, if we will not receive the Book of Mormon. Nephi has seen them as well, and spoke of those who felt that they already had enough of God’s words (see 2 Nephi 28:29).
If the modern world rejects His written words, and by implication the whole of the marvelous work and a wonder that will be the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, those words will stand against them at the day when they stand before their God to be judged.