There were nineteen of the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah (2–14; 48–51; 53–54) of the present-day text recorded on the plates of Nephi. Two other chapters were recorded in their entirety, except for two verses in each chapter (29, 52). Two verses of another chapter (55:1–2), and one verse from two other chapters (28:13; 40:3), were recorded upon the plates. There are a total of 1292 verses of Isaiah in the present text, and 425 of those were upon the plates, making a total of about one-third of the text. Therefore, Moroni must have been referring to the other parts of the book of Isaiah that were not recorded upon the plates when he admonished us to search them (v. 23 above). The saints who will “cry unto the Lord” from the dust are those whose actual words were written upon the plates as well as others who were referred to in the accounts of the Nephite records. Isaiah had foretold their crying from the dust or speaking out of the ground (see Isaiah 29:4). We know that Enos and his fathers prayed that the Lord would preserve and bring the record of the Nephites to their Lamanite brethren (see Enos 1:16, 18), and undoubtedly so did many others. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16), and the Lord hearkened to the prayers of those Nephite saints and remembered his covenants to bring forth the Book of Mormon to them (see D&C 10:46–52).
In listing the accomplishments of those who prayed (Mormon 8:24), Moroni helps us identify many of them. Jacob, brother of Nephi, testified that “we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea” (Jacob 4:6). Nephi and Lehi, sons of Helaman, were imprisoned and the voice of the Lord shook the earth and caused the prison walls to tumble (Helaman 5:21–31). The three Nephite disciples who were allowed to remain on the earth to bring souls to Christ, could not be harmed by fiery furnaces, neither by wild beasts (see 3 Nephi 28:19–22; 4 Nephi 1:30–33). Although poisonous serpents are not mentioned in the verses cited, and Mormon had not mentioned them in his abridgment, the three disciples probably encountered them as well.
The prayers of the Nephite saints for the person who would bring their record forth (Mormon 8:25) was referring to Joseph Smith. They even knew that “his name shall be called after [Joseph of Egypt]; and it shall be after the name of his father” (2 Nephi 3:15). Their prayers were certainly answered since we have the Book of Mormon today.
As Moroni said, and in fulfillment of his prophecy, (again paraphrasing Isaiah 29:4), the Book of Mormon has come to us by the hand of the Lord, and none could stay it, and it was in a day when it was said miracles were done away (Mormon 8:26).