The question Jacob asks in verse 17 is the theme of Jacob 5–6. How could someone who would be denigrated and rejected be so important? For the Israel of Jesus’s time, the mortal Messiah was a contradiction. Here was a king who was born in a stable, a God who ate with unclean publicans and sinners, a God executed as a criminal who would judge all humankind. The Nephite prophetic understanding of the Messiah presented many of those contradictions (1 Ne. 11:27–33). Jacob is answering one of these contradictions.
Reference: Verse 17 alludes to Psalm 118:22: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” Jacob is assuming that his high-context society would be familiar with this psalm and understand that his allusion invoked both the same image and its authority for his argument. In Jacob’s prophetic vision, he would have understood clearly that Jesus would be this “stone” that Israel would reject.
Redaction: Jacob begins a new section, one that will answer the rhetorical question posed in verse 17. How can the Messiah be the cornerstone of the house of Israel if they are going to reject him? Rather than simple exposition, Jacob answers with a lengthy scriptural allegory—that of the olive tree.
Text: There is no chapter break at this location in the 1830 edition. This entire chapter is the introduction to the allegory, which answers the question posed in verse 17.