Limhi’s quotation of the “east wind” has its Old Testament connotations of destruction. It seems unlikely that winds in the New World would have exactly the same effects as those in the Old World. Therefore, we can be reasonably safe in assuming that this verse was recorded on the brass plates. Furthermore, it means that the Zeniffites must have copied the scriptures that were on the brass plates and brought them to the land of Nephi. This detail corroborates the fact that Noah’s priests knew the prophecies of Isaiah. This copy must have been written on a less permanent (and more portable) material.
This quotation also corroborates the fact that the brass plates contained material not in our current Old Testament. At least two prophets of the Old Testament period, Zenock and Zenos, appear only in the record of the Book of Mormon. These two prophets seemed to stress either the coming of Christ or the future of Israel (Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree). Because Limhi’s quotation urges repentance, possibly they were part of the context in which Zenos gave his allegory. However, a quotation from Zenock also shows him chastising his audience: “For it is not written that Zenos alone spake of these things, but Zenock also spake of these things—For behold, he said: Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son” (Alma 33:15–16).
Although such a conclusion is highly speculative, I have the feeling that, based on these short quotations, Limhi’s quotation may be from Zenock’s prophecies as recorded on the brass plates.
Rhetoric: Limhi is still developing the contrast between his faithful people and their desperate circumstances. Limhi explains that consequences follow transgression; previous transgressions led to current sufferings. Nevertheless, because those consequences are linked to past unrighteousness, they may hope to remove them by righteousness (in the near future).