1 AND now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of teaching my brethren, our afather
, Lehi, also spake many things unto them, and rehearsed unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem.
2 And he spake unto them concerning their arebellions
upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the sea.
3 And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained—how amerciful
the Lord had been in bwarning
us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem.
4 For, behold, said he, I have aseen
a bvision
, in which I know that cJerusalem
is ddestroyed
; and had we remained in Jerusalem we should also have eperished
.
5 But, said he, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a aland
of promise, a land which is bchoice
above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath ccovenanted
with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath dcovenanted
this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be eled
out of other countries by the hand of the Lord.
6 Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall anone
come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, this aland
is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of bliberty
unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound ccursed
shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.
8 And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be akept
as yet from the knowledge of other bnations
; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.
9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a apromise
, that binasmuch
as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall cprosper
upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall dkeep
his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their einheritance
; and they shall dwell safely forever.
10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in aunbelief
, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true bMessiah
, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is cjust
shall rest upon them.
11 Yea, he will bring aother
nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be bscattered
and smitten.
12 Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall be abloodsheds
, and great visitations among them; wherefore, my sons, I would that ye would remember; yea, I would that ye would hearken unto my words.
13 O that ye would awake; awake from a deep asleep
, yea, even from the sleep of bhell
, and shake off the awful cchains
by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal dgulf
of misery and woe.
14 Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling aparent
, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent bgrave
, from whence no traveler can creturn
; a few more ddays
and I go the eway
of all the earth.
15 But behold, the Lord hath aredeemed
my soul from hell; I have beheld his bglory
, and I am encircled about eternally in the carms
of his dlove
.
16 And I desire that ye should remember to observe the astatutes
and the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning.
17 My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow from time to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your God should come out in the fulness of his awrath
upon you, that ye be bcut
off and destroyed forever;
18 Or, that a acursing
should come upon you for the space of bmany
generations; and ye are visited by sword, and by famine, and are hated, and are led according to the will and captivity of the cdevil
.
19 O my sons, that these things might not come upon you, but that ye might be a choice and a afavored
people of the Lord. But behold, his will be done; for his bways
are righteousness forever.
20 And he hath said that: aInasmuch
as ye shall keep my bcommandments
ye shall cprosper
in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.
21 And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this world with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my sons, and be amen
, and be determined in bone
mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity;
22 That ye may not be acursed
with a sore cursing; and also, that ye may not incur the displeasure of a bjust
God upon you, unto the destruction, yea, the eternal destruction of both soul and body.
23 Awake, my sons; put on the armor of arighteousness
. Shake off the bchains
with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.
24 Rebel no more against your brother, whose views have been aglorious
, and who hath kept the commandments from the time that we left Jerusalem; and who hath been an instrument in the hands of God, in bringing us forth into the land of promise; for were it not for him, we must have perished with bhunger
in the wilderness; nevertheless, ye sought to ctake
away his life; yea, and he hath suffered much sorrow because of you.
25 And I exceedingly fear and tremble because of you, lest he shall suffer again; for behold, ye have aaccused
him that he sought power and bauthority
over you; but I know that he hath not sought for power nor authority over you, but he hath sought the glory of God, and your own eternal welfare.
26 And ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used asharpness
; ye say that he hath been angry with you; but behold, his bsharpness
was the sharpness of the power of the word of God, which was in him; and that which ye call anger was the truth, according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain, manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities.
27 And it must needs be that the apower
of God must be with him, even unto his commanding you that ye must obey. But behold, it was not he, but it was the bSpirit
of the Lord which was in him, which copened
his mouth to utterance that he could not shut it.
28 And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish. And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a ablessing
, yea, even my first blessing.
29 But if ye will not hearken unto him I take away my afirst
blessing, yea, even my blessing, and it shall rest upon him.
30 And now, Zoram, I speak unto you: Behold, thou art the aservant
of Laban; nevertheless, thou hast been brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and I know that thou art a true bfriend
unto my son, Nephi, forever.
31 Wherefore, because thou hast been faithful thy seed shall be blessed awith
his seed, that they dwell in prosperity long upon the face of this land; and nothing, save it shall be iniquity among them, shall harm or disturb their prosperity upon the face of this land forever.
32 Wherefore, if ye shall keep the commandments of the Lord, the Lord hath consecrated this land for the security of thy seed with the seed of my son.
1 AND now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my afirst
-born in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my first-born in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine aafflictions
for thy gain.
3 Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother, Nephi; and thy days shall be aspent
in the service of thy God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast bbeheld
that in the cfulness
of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.
4 And thou hast abeheld
in thy youth his glory; wherefore, thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh; for the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the way is prepared from the fall of man, and bsalvation
is cfree
.
5 And men are instructed sufficiently that they aknow
good from evil. And the blaw
is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is cjustified
; or, by the law men are dcut
off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.
6 Wherefore, aredemption
cometh in and through the bHoly
cMessiah
; for he is full of dgrace
and truth.
7 Behold, he offereth himself a asacrifice
for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto bnone
else can the cends
of the law be answered.
8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, asave
it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who blayeth
down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the cresurrection
of the dead, being the first that should rise.
9 Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make aintercession
for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.
10 And because of the intercession for aall
, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be bjudged
of him according to the truth and choliness
which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the dpunishment
which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the eatonement
—
11 For it must needs be, that there is an aopposition
in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no apurpose
in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the bjustice
of God.
13 And if ye shall say there is ano
law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not bthere
is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
14 And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and alearning
; for there is a God, and he hath bcreated
all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be cacted
upon.
15 And to bring about his eternal apurposes
in the end of man, after he had bcreated
our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the cfowls
of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the dforbidden
efruit
in fopposition
to the gtree
of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.
16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should aact
for himself. Wherefore, man could not bact
for himself save it should be that he was centiced
by the one or the other.
17 And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an aangel
of God, according to that which is written, had bfallen
from heaven; wherefore, he became a cdevil
, having sought that which was evil before God.
18 And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he asought
also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all blies
, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, cknowing
good and evil.
19 And after Adam and Eve had apartaken
of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of bEden
, to till the earth.
20 And they have brought forth children; yea, even the afamily
of all the earth.
21 And the days of the children of amen
were prolonged, according to the bwill
of God, that they might crepent
while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of dprobation
, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were elost
, because of the transgression of their parents.
22 And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
23 And they would have had no achildren
; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no bjoy
, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no csin
.
24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who aknoweth
all things.
25 aAdam
bfell
that men might be; and men care
, that they might have djoy
.
26 And the aMessiah
cometh in the fulness of time, that he may bredeem
the children of men from the fall. And because that they are credeemed
from the fall they have become dfree
forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the elaw
at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
27 Wherefore, men are afree
according to the bflesh
; and call
things are dgiven
them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to echoose
fliberty
and eternal glife
, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be hmiserable
like unto himself.
28 And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great aMediator
, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;
29 And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the aevil
which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to bcaptivate
, to bring you down to chell
, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.
30 I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting awelfare
of your souls. Amen.
1 AND now I speak unto you, Joseph, my alast
-born. Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee.
2 And may the Lord consecrate also unto thee this aland
, which is a most precious land, for thine inheritance and the inheritance of thy seed with thy brethren, for thy security forever, if it so be that ye shall keep the commandments of the Holy One of Israel.
3 And now, Joseph, my last-born, whom I have brought out of the wilderness of mine afflictions, may the Lord bless thee forever, for thy aseed
shall not utterly be bdestroyed
.
4 For behold, thou art the fruit of my loins; and I am a descendant of aJoseph
who was carried bcaptive
into Egypt. And great were the ccovenants
of the Lord which he made unto Joseph.
5 Wherefore, Joseph truly asaw
our day. And he obtained a bpromise
of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a crighteous
dbranch
unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made emanifest
unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of fdarkness
unto light—yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom.
6 For Joseph truly testified, saying: A aseer
shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my bloins
.
7 Yea, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice aseer
will I braise
up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the cknowledge
of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers.
8 And I will give unto him a commandment that he shall do anone
other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work.
9 And he shall be great like unto aMoses
, whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to bdeliver
my cpeople
, O house of Israel.
10 And aMoses
will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt.
11 But a aseer
will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give bpower
to cbring
forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.
12 Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall awrite
; and the fruit of the loins of bJudah
shall cwrite
; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the dconfounding
of efalse
doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing fpeace
among the fruit of thy loins, and gbringing
them to the hknowledge
of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.
13 And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.
14 And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;
15 And his aname
shall be called after me; and it shall be after the bname
of his father. And he shall be clike
unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring dmy
people unto esalvation
.
16 Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will apreserve
thy seed forever.
17 And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will awrite
unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a bspokesman
for him.
18 And the Lord said unto me also: I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it.
19 And the words which he shall write shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom should go forth unto the afruit
of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them bfrom
the dust; for I know their faith.
20 And they shall acry
from the bdust
; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them. And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the simpleness of their words.
21 Because of their faith their awords
shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers.
22 And now, behold, my son Joseph, after this manner did my father of old aprophesy
.
23 Wherefore, because of this covenant thou art ablessed
; for thy seed shall not be destroyed, for they shall bhearken
unto the words of the book.
24 And there shall rise up aone
mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and in deed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that thing which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much brestoration
unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren.
25 And now, blessed art thou, Joseph. Behold, thou art little; wherefore hearken unto the words of thy brother, Nephi, and it shall be done unto thee even according to the words which I have spoken. Remember the words of thy dying father. Amen.
1 AND now, I, Nephi, speak concerning the prophecies of which my father hath spoken, concerning aJoseph
, who was carried into Egypt.
2 For behold, he truly prophesied concerning all his seed. And the aprophecies
which he wrote, there are not many greater. And he prophesied concerning us, and our future generations; and they are written upon the bplates
of brass.
3 Wherefore, after my father had made an end of speaking concerning the prophecies of Joseph, he called the children of Laman, his sons, and his daughters, and said unto them: Behold, my sons, and my daughters, who are the sons and the daughters of my afirst
-born, I would that ye should give ear unto my words.
4 For the Lord God hath said that: aInasmuch
as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.
5 But behold, my sons and my daughters, I cannot go down to my grave save I should leave a ablessing
upon you; for behold, I know that if ye are bbrought
up in the cway
ye should go ye will not depart from it.
6 Wherefore, if ye are acursed
, behold, I leave my blessing upon you, that the bcursing
may be taken from you and be answered upon the cheads
of your parents.
7 Wherefore, because of my blessing the Lord God will anot
suffer that ye shall perish; wherefore, he will be bmerciful
unto you and unto your seed forever.
8 And it came to pass that after my father had made an end of speaking to the sons and daughters of Laman, he caused the sons and daughters of Lemuel to be brought before him.
9 And he spake unto them, saying: Behold, my sons and my daughters, who are the sons and the daughters of my second son; behold I leave unto you the same blessing which I left unto the sons and daughters of Laman; wherefore, thou shalt not utterly be destroyed; but in the end thy seed shall be blessed.
10 And it came to pass that when my father had made an end of speaking unto them, behold, he spake unto the sons of aIshmael
, yea, and even all his household.
11 And after he had made an end of speaking unto them, he spake unto Sam, saying: Blessed art thou, and thy aseed
; for thou shalt inherit the land like unto thy brother Nephi. And thy seed shall be numbered with his seed; and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother, and thy seed like unto his seed; and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days.
12 And it came to pass after my father, Lehi, had aspoken
unto all his household, according to the feelings of his heart and the Spirit of the Lord which was in him, he waxed bold
. And it came to pass that he died, and was buried.
13 And it came to pass that not many days after his death, Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael were aangry
with me because of the admonitions of the Lord.
14 For I, Nephi, was constrained to speak unto them, according to his word; for I had spoken many things unto them, and also my father, before his death; many of which sayings are written upon mine aother
plates; for a more history part are written upon mine other plates.
15 And upon athese
I bwrite
the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul cdelighteth
in the scriptures, and my heart dpondereth
them, and writeth them for the elearning
and the profit of my children.
16 Behold, my asoul
delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my bheart
pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great agoodness
of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O bwretched
man that I am! Yea, my heart csorroweth
because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.
18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily abeset
me.
19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have atrusted
.
20 My God hath been my asupport
; he hath led me through mine bafflictions
in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.
21 He hath filled me with his alove
, even unto the bconsuming
of my flesh.
22 He hath confounded mine aenemies
, unto the causing of them to quake before me.
23 Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me aknowledge
by bvisions
in the night-time.
24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty aprayer
before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.
25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been acarried
away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them.
26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath avisited
men in so much bmercy
, cwhy
should my dheart
weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?
27 And why should I ayield
to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to btemptations
, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my cpeace
and afflict my soul? Why am I dangry
because of mine enemy?
28 Awake, my soul! No longer adroop
in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the benemy
of my soul.
29 Do not aanger
again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.
30 Rejoice, O my aheart
, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the brock
of my salvation.
31 O Lord, wilt thou aredeem
my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of bsin
?
32 May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my aheart
is broken and my spirit is contrite! O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may bwalk
in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!
33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy arighteousness
! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine benemies
! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.
34 O Lord, I have atrusted
in thee, and I will btrust
in thee forever. I will not put my ctrust
in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his dtrust
in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.
35 Yea, I know that God will give aliberally
to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I bask
cnot
amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the drock
of my erighteousness
. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.
1 BEHOLD, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God, because of the aanger
of my brethren.
2 But behold, their aanger
did increase against me, insomuch that they did seek to take away my life.
3 Yea, they did murmur against me, saying: Our younger brother thinks to arule
over us; and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to brule
over this people.
4 Now I do not write upon these plates all the words which they murmured against me. But it sufficeth me to say, that they did seek to take away my life.
5 And it came to pass that the Lord did awarn
me, that I, bNephi
, should depart from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me.
6 Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also aZoram
and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the bwarnings
and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words.
7 And we did take our tents and whatsoever things were possible for us, and did journey in the wilderness for the space of many days. And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents.
8 And my people would that we should call the name of the place aNephi
; wherefore, we did call it Nephi.
9 And all those who were with me did take upon them to call themselves the apeople
of Nephi.
10 And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the astatutes
, and the commandments of the Lord in all things, according to the blaw
of Moses.
11 And the Lord was with us; and we did aprosper
exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind.
12 And I, Nephi, had also brought the records which were engraven upon the aplates
of brass; and also the bball
, or ccompass
, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord, according to that which is written.
13 And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land.
14 And I, Nephi, did take the asword
of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many bswords
, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their chatred
towards me and my children and those who were called my people.
15 And I did teach my people to abuild
buildings, and to bwork
in all cmanner
of wood, and of diron
, and of copper, and of ebrass
, and of steel, and of fgold
, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.
16 And I, Nephi, did abuild
a btemple
; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of cSolomon
save it were not built of so many dprecious
things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s etemple
. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of fSolomon
; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.
17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be aindustrious
, and to blabor
with their chands
.
18 And it came to pass that they would that I should be their aking
. But I, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, I did for them according to that which was in my power.
19 And behold, the words of the Lord had been fulfilled unto my brethren, which he spake concerning them, that I should be their aruler
and their teacher. Wherefore, I had been their ruler and their bteacher
, according to the commandments of the Lord, until the time they sought to take away my life.
20 Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will anot
hearken unto thy words they shall be bcut
off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were ccut
off from his presence.
21 And he had caused the acursing
to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and bdelightsome
, that they might not be centicing
unto my people the Lord God did cause a dskin
of eblackness
to come upon them.
22 And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be aloathsome
unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.
23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that amixeth
with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.
24 And because of their acursing
which was upon them they did become an bidle
people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.
25 And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to astir
them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction.
26 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did aconsecrate
Jacob and Joseph, that they should be bpriests
and cteachers
over the land of my people.
27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of ahappiness
.
28 *And thirty years had passed away from the time we left Jerusalem.
29 And I, Nephi, had kept the arecords
upon my plates, which I had made, of my people thus far.
30 And it came to pass that the Lord God said unto me: aMake
other plates; and thou shalt engraven many things upon them which are good in my sight, for the profit of thy people.
31 Wherefore, I, Nephi, to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, went and made athese
plates upon which I have engraven these things.
32 And I engraved that which is pleasing unto God. And if my people are pleased with the things of God they will be pleased with mine engravings which are upon these plates.
33 And if my people desire to know the more particular part of the history of my people they must search mine aother
bplates
.
34 And it sufficeth me to say that *forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren.
* Verse 28 [569 B.C.]; Verse 34 [559 B.C.].
1 THE
awords
of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi:
2 Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of his holy aorder
, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a bking
or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things.
3 Nevertheless, I speak unto you again; for I am desirous for the awelfare
of your souls. Yea, mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it ever has been. For I have exhorted you with all diligence; and I have taught you the words of my father; and I have spoken unto you concerning all things which are bwritten
, from the creation of the world.
4 And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of aIsaiah
. And they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God.
5 And now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel; wherefore, they may be alikened
unto you, for ye are of the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are of the house of Israel.
6 And now, these are the words: aThus
saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my bstandard
to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
7 And akings
shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that bI
am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that cwait
for me.
8 And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at aJerusalem
, from whence we came, have been bslain
and ccarried
away captive.
9 Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should areturn
again. And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should bscourge
him and ccrucify
him, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me.
10 And after they have ahardened
their hearts and bstiffened
their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the cjudgments
of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted.
11 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to aperish
, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that bwhen
they shall come to the cknowledge
of their Redeemer, they shall be dgathered
together again to the elands
of their inheritance.
12 And blessed are the aGentiles
, they of whom the prophet has written; for behold, if it so be that they shall repent and fight not against Zion, and do not unite themselves to that great and babominable
church, they shall be saved; for the Lord God will fulfil his ccovenants
which he has made unto his children; and for this cause the prophet has written these things.
13 Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord shall lick up the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not be aashamed
. For the people of the Lord are they who bwait
for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah.
14 And behold, according to the words of the prophet, the Messiah will set himself again the asecond
time to recover them; wherefore, he will bmanifest
himself unto them in power and great glory, unto the cdestruction
of their enemies, when that day cometh when they shall believe in him; and none will he destroy that believe in him.
15 And they that believe not in him shall be adestroyed
, both by bfire
, and by tempest, and by earthquakes, and by cbloodsheds
, and by dpestilence
, and by efamine
. And they shall know that the Lord is God, the Holy One of Israel.
16 aFor
shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the blawful
captive delivered?
17 But thus saith the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; afor
the bMighty
God shall cdeliver
his covenant people. For thus saith the Lord: I will contend with them that contendeth with thee—
18 And I will feed them that oppress thee, with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy aRedeemer
, the bMighty
One of Jacob.
1 aYEA
, for thus saith the Lord: Have I put thee away, or have I cast thee off forever? For thus saith the Lord: Where is the bbill
of your mother’s cdivorcement
? To whom have I put thee away, or to which of my dcreditors
have I esold
you? Yea, to whom have I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came, there was no man; when I acalled
, yea, there was none to answer. O house of Israel, is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I bdry
up the csea
, I make their drivers
a wilderness and their efish
to stink because the waters are dried up, and they die because of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with ablackness
, and I make bsackcloth
their covering.
4 The Lord God hath given me the atongue
of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season unto thee, O house of Israel. When ye are weary he waketh morning by morning. He waketh mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The Lord God hath opened mine aear
, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the asmiter
, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from bshame
and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be aashamed
.
8 And the Lord is near, and he ajustifieth
me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near me, and I will bsmite
him with the strength of my mouth.
9 For the Lord God will help me. And all they who shall acondemn
me, behold, all they shall bwax
old as a garment, and the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the avoice
of his servant, that bwalketh
in darkness and hath no light?
11 Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of ayour
fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. bThis
shall ye have of mine hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow.
1 aHEARKEN
unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the brock
from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham, your afather
, and unto bSarah
, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him.
3 For the Lord shall acomfort
bZion
, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her cwilderness
like dEden
, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a alaw
shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a blight
for the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my asalvation
is gone forth, and mine arm shall bjudge
the people. The cisles
shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the aheavens
, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall bvanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall cwax
old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, afear
ye not the breproach
of men, neither be ye afraid of their crevilings
.
8 For the amoth
shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 aAwake
, awake! Put on bstrength
, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut cRahab
, and wounded the ddragon
?
10 Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a away
for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore, the aredeemed
of the Lord shall breturn
, and come with csinging
unto Zion; and everlasting joy and holiness shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and dmourning
shall flee away.
12 aI
am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you. Behold, who art thou, that thou shouldst be bafraid
of man, who shall die, and of the son of man, who shall be made like unto cgrass
?
13 And aforgettest
the Lord thy maker, that hath bstretched
forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the coppressor
, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The acaptive
exile hasteneth, that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the Lord thy God, whose awaves
roared; the Lord of Hosts is my name.
16 And I have aput
my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion: Behold, thou art my bpeople
.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the acup
of his bfury
—thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out—
18 And none to guide her among all the sons she hath brought forth; neither that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons she hath brought up.
19 These two asons
are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee—thy desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword—and by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, save these two; they lie at the head of all the streets; as a wild bull in a net, they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and adrunken
, and not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God apleadeth
the cause of his people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.
23 But aI
will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over—and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over.
24 aAwake
, awake, put on thy bstrength
, O cZion
; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall dno
more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
25 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the abands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
1 AND now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things that ye might know concerning the acovenants
of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the house of Israel—
2 That he has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning down, from generation to generation, until the time comes that they shall be arestored
to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be bgathered
home to the clands
of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise.
3 Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and alift
up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children.
4 For I know that ye have searched much, many of you, to know of things to come; wherefore I know that ye know that our aflesh
must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our bbodies
we shall see God.
5 Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great aCreator
that he bsuffereth
himself to become csubject
unto man in the flesh, and ddie
for eall
men, that all men might become subject unto him.
6 For as adeath
hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful bplan
of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of cresurrection
, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the dfall
; and the fall came by reason of etransgression
; and because man became fallen they were fcut
off from the gpresence
of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, it must needs be an ainfinite
batonement
—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the cfirst
judgment which came upon man must needs have dremained
to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.
8 O the awisdom
of God, his bmercy
and cgrace
! For behold, if the dflesh
should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who efell
from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the fdevil
, to rise no more.
9 And our spirits must have become alike
unto him, and we become devils, bangels
to a cdevil
, to be dshut
out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of elies
, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who fbeguiled
our first parents, who gtransformeth
himself nigh unto an hangel
of light, and istirreth
up the children of men unto jsecret
combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.
10 O how great the agoodness
of our God, who prepareth a way for our bescape
from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, cdeath
and dhell
, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.
11 And because of the way of adeliverance
of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this bdeath
, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.
12 And this adeath
of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is bhell
; wherefore, death and hell must cdeliver
up their dead, and hell must deliver up its dcaptive
espirits
, and the grave must deliver up its captive fbodies
, and the bodies and the gspirits
of men will be hrestored
one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
13 O how great the aplan
of our God! For on the other hand, the bparadise
of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is crestored
to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and dimmortal
, and they are living souls, having a eperfect
fknowledge
like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.
14 Wherefore, we shall have a aperfect
bknowledge
of all our cguilt
, and our duncleanness
, and our enakedness
; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their frighteousness
, being gclothed
with hpurity
, yea, even with the irobe
of righteousness.
15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the ajudgment
-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the bjudgment
, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.
16 And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal aword
, which cannot bpass
away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are cfilthy
shall be dfilthy
still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the edevil
and his angels; and they shall go away into feverlasting
fire, prepared for them; and their gtorment
is as a hlake
of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end.
17 O the greatness and the ajustice
of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be bfulfilled
.
18 But, behold, the arighteous
, the bsaints
of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the ccrosses
of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall dinherit
the ekingdom
of God, which was prepared for them ffrom
the foundation of the world, and their gjoy
shall be full hforever
.
19 O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he adelivereth
his saints from that bawful
monster the devil, and death, and chell
, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.
20 O how great the aholiness
of our God! For he bknoweth
call
things, and there is not anything save he knows it.
21 And he cometh into the world that he may asave
all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the bpains
of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of cAdam
.
22 And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.
23 And he commandeth all men that they must arepent
, and be bbaptized
in his name, having perfect cfaith
in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.
24 And if they will not repent and believe in his aname
, and be baptized in his name, and bendure
to the end, they must be cdamned
; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it.
25 Wherefore, he has given a alaw
; and where there is bno
claw
given there is no dpunishment
; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him.
26 For the aatonement
satisfieth the demands of his bjustice
upon all those who chave
not the dlaw
given to them, that they are edelivered
from that awful monster, death and fhell
, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them gbreath
, which is the Holy One of Israel.
27 But wo unto him that has the alaw
given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that btransgresseth
them, and that cwasteth
the days of his dprobation
, for awful is his state!
28 O that cunning aplan
of the evil one! O the bvainness
, and the frailties, and the cfoolishness
of men! When they are dlearned
they think they are ewise
, and they fhearken
not unto the gcounsel
of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their hwisdom
is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.
29 But to be alearned
is good if they bhearken
unto the ccounsels
of God.
30 But wo unto the arich
, who are brich
as to the things of the cworld
. For because they are rich they despise the dpoor
, and they persecute the meek, and their ehearts
are upon their treasures; wherefore, their ftreasure
is their god. And behold, their gtreasure
shall perish with them also.
31 And wo unto the deaf that will not ahear
; for they shall perish.
32 Wo unto the ablind
that will not see; for they shall perish also.
33 Wo unto the auncircumcised
of heart, for a knowledge of their iniquities shall smite them at the last day.
34 Wo unto the aliar
, for he shall be thrust down to bhell
.
35 Wo unto the amurderer
who deliberately bkilleth
, for he shall cdie
.
36 Wo unto them who commit awhoredoms
, for they shall be thrust down to hell.
37 Yea, wo unto those that aworship
idols, for the devil of all devils delighteth in them.
38 And, in fine, wo unto all those who die in their asins
; for they shall breturn
to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins.
39 O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in atransgressing
against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that bcunning
one. Remember, to be ccarnally
-minded is ddeath
, and to be espiritually
-minded is flife
geternal
.
40 O, my beloved brethren, give ear to my words. Remember the greatness of the Holy One of Israel. Do not say that I have spoken hard things against you; for if ye do, ye will arevile
against the btruth
; for I have spoken the words of your Maker. I know that the words of truth are chard
against all duncleanness
; but the erighteous
fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken.
41 O then, my beloved brethren, acome
unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the bway
for man is cnarrow
, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the dgate
is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.
42 And whoso aknocketh
, to him will he open; and the bwise
, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their clearning
, and their dwisdom
, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves efools
before God, and come down in the depths of fhumility
, he will not open unto them.
43 But the things of the wise and the aprudent
shall be bhid
from them forever—yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints.
44 O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his aall
-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, that the God of Israel did witness that I bshook
your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am crid
of your blood.
45 O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the achains
of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the brock
of your salvation.
46 Prepare your souls for that glorious day when ajustice
shall be administered unto the righteous, even the day of bjudgment
, that ye may not shrink with awful fear; that ye may not remember your awful cguilt
in perfectness, and be constrained to exclaim: Holy, holy are thy judgments, O Lord God dAlmighty
—but I know my guilt; I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath eobtained
me, that I am a prey to his awful misery.
47 But behold, my brethren, is it expedient that I should awake you to an awful reality of these things? Would I harrow up your souls if your minds were pure? Would I be plain unto you according to the plainness of the truth if ye were freed from sin?
48 Behold, if ye were holy I would speak unto you of holiness; but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a ateacher
, it must needs be expedient that I bteach
you the consequences of sin.
49 Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart adelighteth
in righteousness; and I will bpraise
the holy name of my God.
50 Come, my brethren, every one that athirsteth
, come ye to the bwaters
; and he that hath no cmoney
, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your alabor
for that which cannot bsatisfy
. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and cfeast
upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.
52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give athanks
unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts brejoice
.
53 And behold how great the acovenants
of the Lord, and how great his bcondescensions
unto the children of men; and because of his greatness, and his cgrace
and dmercy
, he has promised unto us that our seed shall not utterly be destroyed, according to the flesh, but that he would epreserve
them; and in future generations they shall become a righteous fbranch
unto the house of Israel.
54 And now, my brethren, I would speak unto you more; but on the morrow I will declare unto you the remainder of my words. Amen.
1 AND now I, Jacob, speak unto you again, my beloved brethren, concerning this righteous abranch
of which I have spoken.
2 For behold, the apromises
which we have obtained are promises unto us according to the flesh; wherefore, as it has been shown unto me that many of our children shall perish in the flesh because of bunbelief
, nevertheless, God will be merciful unto many; and our children shall be crestored
, that they may come to that which will give them the true knowledge of their Redeemer.
3 Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ—for in the last night the aangel
spake unto me that this should be his name—should bcome
among the cJews
, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall dcrucify
him—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would ecrucify
their fGod
.
4 For should the mighty amiracles
be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.
5 But because of apriestcrafts
and iniquities, they at Jerusalem will bstiffen
their necks against him, that he be ccrucified
.
6 Wherefore, because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, apestilences
, and bloodshed shall come upon them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be bscattered
among all nations.
7 But behold, thus saith the aLord
God: bWhen
the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be crestored
in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the dlands
of their inheritance.
8 And it shall come to pass that they shall be agathered
in from their long dispersion, from the bisles
of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in ccarrying
them forth to the lands of their inheritance.
9 aYea
, the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers; wherefore, the bpromises
of the Lord are great unto the Gentiles, for he hath spoken it, and who can dispute?
10 But behold, this land, said God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the aGentiles
shall be blessed upon the land.
11 And this land shall be a land of aliberty
unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no bkings
upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles.
12 And I will fortify this land aagainst
all other nations.
13 And he that afighteth
against Zion shall bperish
, saith God.
14 For he that raiseth up a aking
against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the bking
of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a clight
unto them forever, that hear my words.
15 Wherefore, for this cause, that my acovenants
may be fulfilled which I have made unto the children of men, that I will do unto them while they are in the flesh, I must needs destroy the bsecret
works of cdarkness
, and of murders, and of abominations.
16 Wherefore, he that afighteth
against bZion
, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, cshall
perish; for dthey
are they who are the ewhore
of all the earth; for fthey
who are gnot
for me are hagainst
me, saith our God.
17 For I will afulfil
my bpromises
which I have made unto the children of men, that I will do unto them while they are in the flesh—
18 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, thus saith our God: I will afflict thy seed by the hand of the Gentiles; nevertheless, I will asoften
the hearts of the bGentiles
, that they shall be like unto a father to them; wherefore, the Gentiles shall be cblessed
and dnumbered
among the house of Israel.
19 Wherefore, I will aconsecrate
this land unto thy seed, and them who shall be numbered among thy seed, forever, for the land of their inheritance; for it is a choice land, saith God unto me, above all other lands, wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me, saith God.
20 And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been adriven
out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a bbetter
land, for the Lord has made the sea our cpath
, and we are upon an disle
of the sea.
21 But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the aisles
of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren.
22 For behold, the Lord God has aled
away from time to time from the house of Israel, according to his will and pleasure. And now behold, the Lord remembereth all them who have been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also.
23 Therefore, acheer
up your hearts, and remember that ye are bfree
to cact
for yourselves—to dchoose
the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.
24 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, areconcile
yourselves to the bwill
of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the cgrace
of God that ye are dsaved
.
25 Wherefore, may God araise
you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the batonement
, that ye may be received into the ceternal
kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine. Amen.
1 AND now, aJacob
spake many more things to my people at that time; nevertheless only these things have I caused to be bwritten
, for the things which I have written sufficeth me.
2 And now I, Nephi, write amore
of the words of bIsaiah
, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily csaw
my dRedeemer
, even as I have seen him.
3 And my brother, Jacob, also has aseen
him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of bthree
, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more cwitnesses
, and he proveth all his words.
4 Behold, my soul delighteth in aproving
unto my people the truth of the bcoming
of Christ; for, for this end hath the claw
of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the dtypifying
of him.
5 And also my soul delighteth in the acovenants
of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soul delighteth in his bgrace
, and in his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of cdeliverance
from death.
6 And my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that asave
Christ should come all men must perish.
7 For if there be ano
Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no bcreation
. But there is a God, and che
is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time.
8 And now I write asome
of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men.
1 aTHE
word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, awhen
the bmountain
of the Lord’s chouse
shall be established in the top of the dmountains
, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many apeople
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the bmountain
of the Lord, to the chouse
of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will dwalk
in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall ajudge
among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks—nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord; yea, come, for ye have all agone
astray, every one to his bwicked
ways.
6 Therefore, O Lord, thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and hearken unto asoothsayers
like the bPhilistines
, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their atreasures
; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
8 Their land is also full of aidols
; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
9 And the mean man aboweth
bnot
down, and the great man humbleth himself not, therefore, forgive him not.
10 O ye wicked ones, enter into the rock, and ahide
thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty shall smite thee.
11 And it shall come to pass that the alofty
looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the aday
of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one; yea, upon the bproud
and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.
13 Yea, and the day of the Lord shall come upon all the acedars
of Lebanon, for they are high and lifted up; and upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 And upon all the ahigh
mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people;
15 And upon every ahigh
tower, and upon every fenced wall;
16 And upon all the ships of the asea
, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the ahaughtiness
of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in bthat
day.
18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the aglory
of his majesty shall smite them, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he hath made for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the majesty of his glory shall smite them, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?
1 aFOR
behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole staff of bread, and the whole stay of water—
2 The amighty
man, and the man of bwar
, the judge, and the prophet, and the cprudent
, and the ancient;
3 The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
4 And I will give children unto them to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall be aoppressed
, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor; the child shall behave himself bproudly
against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.
6 When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, and shall say: Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let not this aruin
come under thy hand—
7 In that day shall he swear, saying: I will not be a healer; for in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; make me not a ruler of the people.
8 For Jerusalem is aruined
, and Judah is bfallen
, because their ctongues
and their doings have been against the Lord, to dprovoke
the eyes of his glory.
9 The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and doth declare their asin
to be even as bSodom
, and they cannot hide it. Wo unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves!
10 Say unto the righteous that it is awell
with them; for they shall beat
the fruit of their doings.
11 Wo unto the wicked, for they shall perish; for the reward of their hands shall be upon them!
12 And my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they who alead
thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths.
13 The Lord standeth up to aplead
, and standeth to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into ajudgment
with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the bvineyard
and the spoil of the cpoor
in your houses.
15 What mean ye? Ye abeat
my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts.
16 Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are ahaughty
, and bwalk
with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet—
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a ascab
the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will bdiscover
their secret parts.
18 In that aday
the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon;
19 The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers;
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings;
21 The rings, and nose jewels;
22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins;
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils.
24 And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, abaldness
; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; bburning
instead of cbeauty
.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war.
26 And her agates
shall lament and bmourn
; and she shall be desolate, and shall csit
upon the ground.
1 aAND
in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our breproach
.
2 In that day shall the abranch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, they that are aleft
in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem—
4 When the Lord shall have awashed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of bburning
.
5 And the aLord
will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a bcloud
and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory of Zion shall be a defence.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of arefuge
, and a covert from storm and from rain.
1 aAND
then will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his bvineyard
. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest avine
, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wild grapes.
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard—I will atake
away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down;
6 And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up abriers
and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they brain
no rain upon it.
7 For the avineyard
of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for bjudgment
, and behold, coppression
; for righteousness, but behold, a cry.
8 Wo unto them that join ahouse
to house, till there can be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9 In mine ears, said the Lord of Hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one abath
, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah.
11 Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may afollow
strong drink, that continue until night, and bwine
inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the aviol
, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they bregard
not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore, my people are gone into acaptivity
, because they have no bknowledge
; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15 And the mean man shall be abrought
down, and the bmighty
man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the clofty
shall be humbled.
16 But the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in ajudgment
, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the afat
ones shall strangers eat.
18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of avanity
, and sin as it were with a cart rope;
19 That say: Let him amake
speed, bhasten
his work, that we may csee
it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it.
20 Wo unto them that acall
bevil
good, and good evil, that put cdarkness
for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Wo unto the awise
in their own eyes and bprudent
in their own sight!
22 Wo unto the mighty to drink awine
, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;
23 Who justify the wicked for areward
, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore, as the afire
devoureth the bstubble
, and the flame consumeth the cchaff
, their droot
shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and edespised
the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore, is the aanger
of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up an aensign
to the bnations
from far, and will hiss unto them from the cend
of the earth; and behold, they shall dcome
with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them.
27 None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken;
28 Whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent, and their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion.
29 They shall roar like young alions
; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver.
30 And in that aday
they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
1 aIN
the byear
that king Uzziah died, I csaw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the aseraphim
; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his aglory
.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I: Wo is unto me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have aseen
the King, the Lord of Hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar;
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said: Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine ainiquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: aWhom
shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here am I; send me.
9 And he said: Go and tell this people—Hear ye indeed, but they understood not; and see ye indeed, but they perceived not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes—lest they see with their eyes, and ahear
with their ears, and understand with their bheart
, and be converted and be healed.
11 Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate;
12 And the Lord have aremoved
men far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet there shall be a tenth, and they shall return, and shall be eaten, as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves; so the aholy
seed shall be the substance thereof.
1 aAND
it came to pass in the days of bAhaz
the son of cJotham
, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that dRezin
, king of Syria, and ePekah
the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah: Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the aconduit
of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;
4 And say unto him: Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying:
6 Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, yea, the son of Tabeal.
7 Thus saith the Lord God: aIt
shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus, Rezin; and within three score and five years shall Ephraim be abroken
that it be not a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will anot
believe surely ye shall not be established.
10 Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying:
11 Ask thee a asign
of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above.
12 But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I atempt
the Lord.
13 And he said: Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
14 Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a avirgin
shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name bImmanuel
.
15 Butter and ahoney
shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good.
16 For abefore
the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of bboth
her kings.
17 The Lord shall abring
upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come from the day that bEphraim
departed from Judah, the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a arazor
that is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk they shall give he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, which shall be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither, because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
25 And all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and the treading of lesser cattle.
1 MOREOVER, the word of the Lord said unto me: Take thee a great aroll
, and write in it with a man’s pen, concerning bMaher
-shalal-hash-baz.
2 And I took unto me faithful awitnesses
to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: aCall
his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
4 For behold, athe
child shall bnot
have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, before the riches of Damascus and the cspoil
of dSamaria
shall be taken away before the king of eAssyria
.
5 The Lord spake also unto me again, saying:
6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of aShiloah
that go softly, and rejoice in bRezin
and Remaliah’s son;
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of aAssyria
and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall areach
even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
9 aAssociate
yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us.
11 For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all to whom this people shall say, A aconfederacy
; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a astone
of bstumbling
, and for a crock
of doffense
to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a esnare
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall astumble
and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 aBind
up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that ahideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for asigns
and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have afamiliar
spirits, and unto bwizards
that peep and mutter—cshould
not a people seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead?
20 To the alaw
and to the testimony; and if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
21 And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble, and adarkness
, dimness of anguish, and shall be driven to darkness.
1 aNEVERTHELESS
, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the bland
of cZebulun
, and the land of dNaphtali
, and afterwards did more grievously afflict by the way of the Red Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and aincreased
the joy—they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For thou hast broken the yoke of ahis
burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his boppressor
.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but athis
shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a achild
is born, unto us a son is given; and the bgovernment
shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The cMighty
God, The dEverlasting
Father, The Prince of ePeace
.
7 Of the increase of agovernment
and peace bthere
is no end, upon the throne of cDavid
, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.
8 The Lord sent his word unto Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart:
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn astones
; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into bcedars
.
11 Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of aRezin
against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they shall adevour
Israel with open mouth. For all this his banger
is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turneth not unto ahim
that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts.
14 Therefore will the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush ain
one day.
15 The aancient
, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
16 For the aleaders
of this people cause them to err; and they that are bled
of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have amercy
on their fatherless and bwidows
; for cevery
one of them is a hypocrite and an devildoer
, and every mouth speaketh efolly
. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his fhand
is stretched out still.
18 For awickedness
burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forests, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the aland
darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; bno
man shall spare his brother.
20 And he ashall
snatch on the right hand and be hungry; and he shall beat
on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm—
21 Manasseh, aEphraim
; and Ephraim, Manasseh; they together shall be against bJudah
. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
1 aWO
unto them that decree bunrighteous
decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn away the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the apoor
of my people, that bwidows
may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is atheir
indignation.
6 I will send him aagainst
a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but in his heart it is to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he saith: Are not my aprinces
altogether kings?
9 Is not aCalno
as bCarchemish
? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as cDamascus
?
10 As amy
hand hath founded the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her aidols
, so do to Jerusalem and to her idols?
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of aAssyria
, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For ahe
saith: By the strength of bmy
hand and by my wisdom I have done these things; for I am prudent; and I have moved the borders of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man;
14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the aax
boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood!
16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones, leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a afire
, and his Holy One for a flame, and shall burn and shall devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
19 And the arest
of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the ahouse
of Jacob, shall no more again bstay
upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The aremnant
shall return, yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
22 For though thy people aIsrael
be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall breturn
; the cconsumption
decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a aconsumption
, even determined in all the land.
24 Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, abe
not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the bmanner
of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the aindignation
shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
26 And the Lord of Hosts shall astir
up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of bMidian
at the rock of Oreb; and as his rod was upon the sea so shall he lift it up after the manner of cEgypt
.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day that his aburden
shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the banointing
.
28 aHe
is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages.
29 They are gone over the apassage
; they have taken up their lodging at bGeba
; Ramath is afraid; cGibeah
of Saul is fled.
30 Lift up the voice, O daughter of aGallim
; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor bAnathoth
.
31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet shall he remain at aNob
that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the ahigh
ones of stature shall be bhewn
down; and the chaughty
shall be humbled.
34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
1 aAND
there shall bcome
forth a rod out of the cstem
of Jesse, and a dbranch
shall grow out of his roots.
2 And the aSpirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of bwisdom
and cunderstanding
, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not ajudge
after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
4 But with arighteousness
shall he bjudge
the poor, and reprove with equity for the cmeek
of the earth; and he shall dsmite
the earth with the erod
of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And arighteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The awolf
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.
9 They shall anot
hurt nor bdestroy
in all my holy mountain, for the cearth
shall be full of the dknowledge
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
10 And in that day there shall be a aroot
of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the bGentiles
seek; and his crest
shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the asecond
time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from bAssyria
, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from cShinar
, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an aensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the boutcasts
of Israel, and cgather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The aenvy
of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not benvy
cJudah
, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the aPhilistines
towards the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon bEdom
and cMoab
; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the Lord shall utterly adestroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over bdry
shod.
16 And there shall be a ahighway
for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
1 aAND
in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedest me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will atrust
, and not be afraid; for the Lord bJEHOVAH
is my cstrength
and my dsong
; he also has become my salvation.
3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw awater
out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say: aPraise
the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 aSing
unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth.
6 aCry
out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
1 aTHE
burden of bBabylon
, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, ashake
the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my amighty
ones, for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of the multitude in the mountains like as of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the akingdoms
of nations bgathered
together, the Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, yea, the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye, for the aday
of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, every man’s heart shall amelt
;
8 And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall adestroy
the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the astars
of heaven and the bconstellations
thereof shall not give their clight
; the dsun
shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will apunish
the world for evil, and the bwicked
for their iniquity; I will cause the arrogancy of the cproud
to cease, and will lay down the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a aman
more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore, I will ashake
the heavens, and the earth shall bremove
out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up; and they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own aland
.
15 Every one that is proud shall be thrust through; yea, and every one that is ajoined
to the wicked shall fall by the sword.
16 Their achildren
also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the aMedes
against them, which shall not regard silver and gold, nor shall they delight in it.
18 Their bows shall also dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no apity
on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.
19 And aBabylon
, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew bSodom
and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be ainhabited
, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But awild
beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her day shall not be prolonged. For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish.
1 aFOR
the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet bchoose
Israel, and set them in their own land; and the cstrangers
shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; yea, from far unto the ends of the earth; and they shall return to their alands
of promise. And the house of Israel shall bpossess
them, and the land of the Lord shall be for cservants
and handmaids; and they shall take them captives unto whom they were captives; and they shall drule
over their oppressors.
3 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee arest
, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve.
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that thou shalt take up this proverb aagainst
the king of bBabylon
, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased!
5 The Lord hath broken the staff of the awicked
, the scepters of the rulers.
6 aHe
who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
7 The whole earth is at arest
, and is quiet; they break forth into bsinging
.
8 Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and also the cedars of Lebanon, saying: Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us.
9 aHell
from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the bdead
for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?
11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 aHow
art thou fallen from heaven, O bLucifer
, son of the morning! Art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thy heart: aI
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north;
14 aI
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the apit
.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?
17 And made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them, lie in glory, every one of them in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and the remnant of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people; the aseed
of bevil
-doers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the ainiquities
of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the aname
, and remnant, and son, and bnephew
, saith the Lord.
23 I will also make it a apossession
for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.
24 The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand—
25 That I will bring the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; then shall his ayoke
depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.
27 For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28 In the year that king aAhaz
died was this burden.
29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that asmote
thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his bfruit
shall be a cfiery
flying serpent.
30 And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved; for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
32 What shall then answer the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded aZion
, and the bpoor
of his people shall trust in it.
1 NOW I, Nephi, do speak somewhat concerning the words which I have written, which have been spoken by the mouth of Isaiah. For behold, Isaiah spake many things which were ahard
for many of my people to understand; for they know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews.
2 For I, Nephi, have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews; for their aworks
were works of darkness, and their doings were doings of abominations.
3 Wherefore, I write unto my people, unto all those that shall receive hereafter these things which I write, athat
they may know the judgments of God, that they come upon all nations, according to the word which he hath spoken.
4 Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the aspirit
of bprophecy
. But I give unto you a cprophecy
, according to the spirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the dplainness
which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold, my soul delighteth in eplainness
unto my people, that they may learn.
5 Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of aIsaiah
, for I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the bJews
, and I know that the Jews do cunderstand
the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews.
6 But behold, I, Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews; but behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about; and I have made mention unto my children concerning the judgments of God, which ahath
come to pass among the Jews, unto my children, according to all that which Isaiah hath spoken, and I do not write them.
7 But behold, I proceed with mine own prophecy, according to my aplainness
; in the which I bknow
that no man can err; nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass.
8 Wherefore, they are of aworth
unto the children of men, and he that supposeth that they are not, unto them will I speak particularly, and confine the words unto mine bown
people; for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the clast
days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them.
9 And as one generation hath been adestroyed
among the Jews because of iniquity, even so have they been destroyed from generation to generation according to their iniquities; and never hath any of them been destroyed save it were bforetold
them by the prophets of the Lord.
10 Wherefore, it hath been told them concerning the destruction which should come upon them, immediately after my father left aJerusalem
; nevertheless, they bhardened
their hearts; and according to my prophecy they have been destroyed, save it be those which are ccarried
away dcaptive
into Babylon.
11 And now this I speak because of the aspirit
which is in me. And notwithstanding they have been carried away they shall return again, and possess the land of Jerusalem; wherefore, they shall be brestored
again to the cland
of their inheritance.
12 But, behold, they shall have awars
, and rumors of wars; and when the day cometh that the bOnly
Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall cmanifest
himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks.
13 Behold, they will acrucify
him; and after he is laid in a bsepulchre
for the space of cthree
days he shall drise
from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have eseen
his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name.
14 And behold it shall come to pass that after the aMessiah
hath risen from the dead, and hath manifested himself unto his people, unto as many as will believe on his name, behold, Jerusalem shall be bdestroyed
again; for cwo
unto them that fight against God and the people of his dchurch
.
15 Wherefore, the aJews
shall be bscattered
among all nations; yea, and also cBabylon
shall be destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations.
16 And after they have been ascattered
, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation until they shall be persuaded to bbelieve
in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all mankind—and when that day shall come that they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure hearts and cclean
hands, and look not forward any more for danother
Messiah, then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things.
17 And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to arestore
his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed to do a bmarvelous
work and a wonder among the children of men.
18 Wherefore, he shall bring forth ahis
bwords
unto them, which words shall cjudge
them at the last day, for they shall be given them for the purpose of dconvincing
them of the true Messiah, who was rejected by them; and unto the convincing of them that they need not look forward any more for a Messiah to come, for there should not any come, save it should be a efalse
Messiah which should deceive the people; for there is save one fMessiah
spoken of by the prophets, and that Messiah is he who should be rejected of the Jews.
19 For according to the words of the prophets, the aMessiah
cometh in bsix
hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the cangel
of God, his dname
shall be Jesus Christ, the eSon
of God.
20 And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that abrought
Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should bheal
the nations after they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the cserpent
which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the drock
and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are etrue
, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other fname
given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.
21 Wherefore, for this cause hath the Lord God promised unto me that these things which I awrite
shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation, that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph, that his seed should never bperish
as long as the earth should stand.
22 Wherefore, these things shall go from generation to generation as long as the earth shall stand; and they shall go according to the will and pleasure of God; and the nations who shall possess them shall be ajudged
of them according to the words which are written.
23 For we labor diligently to write, to apersuade
our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by bgrace
that we are saved, after all we can cdo
.
24 And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we akeep
the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled.
25 For, for this end was the alaw
given; wherefore the law hath become bdead
unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments.
26 And we atalk
of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we bprophesy
of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our cchildren
may know to what source they may look for a dremission
of their sins.
27 Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away.
28 And now behold, my people, ye are a astiffnecked
people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a btestimony
against you; for they are sufficient to cteach
any man the dright
way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law.
29 And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and aworship
him with all your bmight
, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.
30 And, inasmuch as it shall be expedient, ye must keep the aperformances
and bordinances
of God until the law shall be fulfilled which was given unto Moses.
1 AND after Christ shall have arisen
from the dead he shall bshow
himself unto you, my children, and my beloved brethren; and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the claw
which ye shall do.
2 For behold, I say unto you that I have beheld that many generations shall pass away, and there shall be great wars and contentions among my people.
3 And after the Messiah shall come there shall be asigns
given unto my people of his bbirth
, and also of his cdeath
and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that day be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the dprophets
, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the eblood
of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them.
4 Wherefore, all those who are proud, and that do wickedly, the day that cometh shall aburn
them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, for they shall be as stubble.
5 And they that kill the aprophets
, and the saints, the depths of the earth shall bswallow
them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and cmountains
shall cover them, and whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder.
6 And they shall be visited with thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and all manner of destructions, for the afire
of the anger of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and they shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall consume them, saith the Lord of Hosts.
7 aO
the pain, and the anguish of my soul for the loss of the slain of my people! For I, Nephi, have seen it, and it well nigh consumeth me before the presence of the Lord; but I must cry unto my God: Thy ways are bjust
.
8 But behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with asteadfastness
for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all bpersecution
—behold, they are they which shall cnot
perish.
9 But the Son of righteousness shall aappear
unto them; and he shall bheal
them, and they shall have cpeace
with him, until dthree
generations shall have passed away, and many of the efourth
generation shall have passed away in righteousness.
10 And when these things have passed away a speedy adestruction
cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their bfoolishness
they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and cchoose
works of ddarkness
rather than light, therefore they must go down to ehell
.
11 For the Spirit of the Lord will not always astrive
with man. And when the Spirit bceaseth
to strive with man then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul.
12 And as I spake concerning the aconvincing
of the bJews
, that Jesus is the cvery
Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the dEternal
eGod
;
13 And that he amanifesteth
himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the bHoly
Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty cmiracles
, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their dfaith
.
14 But behold, I prophesy unto you concerning the alast
days; concerning the days when the Lord God shall bbring
these things forth unto the children of men.
15 After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have adwindled
in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have bcamped
against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the cprayers
of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have ddwindled
in unbelief shall not be forgotten.
16 For those who shall be destroyed shall aspeak
unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust.
17 For thus saith the Lord God: They shall awrite
the things which shall be done among them, and they shall be written and bsealed
up in a book, and those who have dwindled in cunbelief
shall not have them, for they dseek
to destroy the things of God.
18 Wherefore, as those who have been destroyed have been destroyed speedily; and the multitude of their aterrible
ones shall be as bchaff
that passeth away—yea, thus saith the Lord God: It shall be at an instant, suddenly—
19 And it shall come to pass, that those who have dwindled in unbelief shall be asmitten
by the hand of the Gentiles.
20 And the Gentiles are lifted up in the apride
of their eyes, and have bstumbled
, because of the greatness of their cstumbling
block, that they have built up many dchurches
; nevertheless, they eput
down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own flearning
, that they may get gain and grind upon the face of the poor.
21 And there are many churches built up which cause aenvyings
, and bstrifes
, and cmalice
.
22 And there are also secret acombinations
, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the bdevil
, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and cworks
of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.
23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in adarkness
.
24 He doeth not aanything
save it be for the benefit of the world; for he bloveth
the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw call
men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: aCome
unto me all ye bends
of the earth, cbuy
milk and honey, without money and without price.
26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should adepart
out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his asalvation
? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath bgiven
it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to crepentance
.
28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but aall
men are privileged the one blike
unto the other, and none are forbidden.
29 He commandeth that there shall be no apriestcrafts
; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set bthemselves
up for a light unto the world, that they may get cgain
and dpraise
of the world; but they seek not the ewelfare
of Zion.
30 Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have acharity
, which bcharity
is clove
. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish.
31 But the alaborer
in bZion
shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for cmoney
they shall perish.
32 And again, the Lord God hath acommanded
that men should not murder; that they should not lie; that they should not bsteal
; that they should not take the name of the Lord their God in cvain
; that they should not denvy
; that they should not have emalice
; that they should not contend one with another; that they should not commit fwhoredoms
; and that they should do none of these things; for whoso doeth them shall perish.
33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he ainviteth
them ball
to ccome
unto him and partake of his goodness; and he ddenieth
none that come unto him, black and white, ebond
and free, male and female; and he remembereth the fheathen
; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.
1 BUT, behold, in the alast
days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be bdrunken
with iniquity and all manner of abominations—
2 And when that day shall come they shall be avisited
of the Lord of Hosts, with thunder and with earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the bflame
of devouring fire.
3 And all the anations
that bfight
against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
4 For behold, all ye that doeth iniquity, stay yourselves and wonder, for ye shall cry out, and cry; yea, ye shall be adrunken
but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong drink.
5 For behold, the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. For behold, ye have closed your aeyes
, and ye have brejected
the prophets; and your rulers, and the seers hath he covered because of your iniquity.
6 And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto ayou
the words of a bbook
, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered.
7 And behold the book shall be asealed
; and in the book shall be a brevelation
from God, from the beginning of the world to the cending
thereof.
8 Wherefore, because of the things which are asealed
up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be kept from them.
9 But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust, and he shall deliver these words unto aanother
;
10 But the words which are asealed
he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold, they breveal
all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof.
11 And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be read by the power of Christ; and all things shall be arevealed
unto the children of men which ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be even unto the end of the earth.
12 Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that athree
bwitnesses
shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein.
13 And there is anone
other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men; for the Lord God hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were bfrom
the dead.
14 Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that arejecteth
the word of God!
15 But behold, it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall say unto him to whom he shall deliver the book: Take these words which are not sealed and deliver them to another, that he may show them unto the learned, saying: aRead
this, I pray thee. And the learned shall say: Bring hither the book, and I will read them.
16 And now, because of the glory of the world and to get again
will they say this, and not for the glory of God.
17 And the man shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed.
18 Then shall the learned say: I cannot read it.
19 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will adeliver
again the book and the words thereof to him that is not learned; and the man that is not learned shall say: I am not learned.
20 Then shall the Lord God say unto him: The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them, and I am aable
to do mine own work; wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee.
21 aTouch
not the things which are sealed, for I will bring them forth in mine own due time; for I will show unto the children of men that I am able to do mine own work.
22 Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the awitnesses
which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own bwisdom
to creveal
all things unto the children of men.
23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of amiracles
; and I will show unto the bworld
that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I cwork
not among the children of men save it be daccording
to their faith.
24 And again it shall come to pass that the Lord shall say unto him that shall read the words that shall be delivered him:
25 aForasmuch
as this people draw near unto me with their mouth, and with their lips do bhonor
me, but have removed their chearts
far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the dprecepts
of men—
26 Therefore, I will proceed to do a amarvelous
work among this people, yea, a bmarvelous
work and a wonder, for the cwisdom
of their wise and dlearned
shall perish, and the eunderstanding
of their fprudent
shall be hid.
27 And awo
unto them that seek deep to hide their bcounsel
from the Lord! And their works are in the cdark
; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? And they also say: Surely, your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the dpotter’s
clay. But behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I eknow
all their works. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding?
28 But behold, saith the Lord of Hosts: I will show unto the children of men that it is yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; and the afruitful
field shall be esteemed as a forest.
29 aAnd
in that day shall the bdeaf
hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
30 And the ameek
also shall increase, and their bjoy
shall be in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
31 For assuredly as the Lord liveth they shall see that the aterrible
one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off;
32 And they that make a man an aoffender
for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the bgate
, and cturn
aside the just for a thing of naught.
33 Therefore, thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall anot
now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
34 But when he aseeth
his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
35 They also that aerred
in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall blearn
doctrine.
1 AND now, behold, my brethren, I have spoken unto you, according as the Spirit hath constrained me; wherefore, I know that they must surely come to pass.
2 And the things which shall be written out of the abook
shall be of great bworth
unto the children of men, and especially unto our seed, which is a cremnant
of the house of Israel.
3 For it shall come to pass in that day that the achurches
which are built up, and not unto the Lord, when the one shall say unto the other: Behold, I, I am the Lord’s; and the others shall say: I, I am the Lord’s; and thus shall every one say that hath built up bchurches
, and not unto the Lord—
4 And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their alearning
, and deny the bHoly
Ghost, which giveth utterance.
5 And they adeny
the bpower
of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is cno
God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men;
6 Behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of amiracles
; he hath done his work.
7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: aEat
, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.
8 And there shall also be many which shall say: aEat
, drink, and be bmerry
; nevertheless, fear God—he will cjustify
in committing a little dsin
; yea, elie
a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a fpit
for thy neighbor; there is gno
harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, afalse
and vain and bfoolish
cdoctrines
, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.
10 And the ablood
of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.
11 Yea, they have all gone out of the away
; they have become bcorrupted
.
12 Because of apride
, and because of bfalse
teachers, and cfalse
doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up.
13 They arob
the bpoor
because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their cpride
they are puffed up.
14 They wear astiff
necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and bwhoredoms
, they have all cgone
astray save it be a dfew
, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are eled
, that in many instances they do ferr
because they are taught by the precepts of men.
15 O the awise
, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the bpride
of their chearts
, and all those who preach dfalse
doctrines, and all those who commit ewhoredoms
, and pervert the right way of the Lord, fwo
, wo, wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell!
16 Wo unto them that aturn
aside the just for a thing of naught and brevile
against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth! For the day shall come that the Lord God will speedily visit the inhabitants of the earth; and in that day that they are cfully
ripe in iniquity they shall perish.
17 But behold, if the inhabitants of the earth shall repent of their wickedness and abominations they shall not be destroyed, saith the Lord of Hosts.
18 But behold, that great and aabominable
church, the bwhore
of all the earth, must ctumble
to the earth, and great must be the fall thereof.
19 For the kingdom of the devil must ashake
, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the bdevil
will grasp them with his everlasting cchains
, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish;
20 For behold, at that day shall he arage
in the bhearts
of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.
21 And others will he apacify
, and lull them away into carnal bsecurity
, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the cdevil
dcheateth
their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.
22 And behold, others he aflattereth
away, and telleth them there is no bhell
; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful cchains
, from whence there is no deliverance.
23 Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be ajudged
according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a blake
of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.
24 Therefore, wo be unto him that is at aease
in Zion!
25 Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!
26 Yea, wo be unto him that ahearkeneth
unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost!
27 Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we aneed
no more!
28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are aangry
because of bthe
truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the crock
dreceiveth
it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.
29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we aneed
bno
more of the word of God, for we have enough!
30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon aprecept
, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn bwisdom
; for unto him that creceiveth
I will give dmore
; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.
31 Cursed is he that putteth his atrust
in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the bprecepts
of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost.
32 aWo
be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and bcome
unto me; for mine carm
is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts.
1 BUT behold, there shall be many—at that day when I shall proceed to do a amarvelous
work among them, that I may remember my bcovenants
which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again the csecond
time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel;
2 And also, that I may remember the promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi, and also unto thy father, that I would remember your seed; and that the awords
of your seed should proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed; and my words shall bhiss
forth unto the cends
of the earth, for a dstandard
unto my people, which are of the house of Israel;
3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A aBible
! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.
4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a aBible
; and it shall proceed forth from the bJews
, mine ancient covenant people. And what cthank
they the dJews
for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?
5 O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have acursed
them, and have bhated
them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people.
6 Thou fool, that shall say: A aBible
, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?
7 Know ye not that there are more anations
than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the bisles
of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the cearth
beneath; and I bring forth my dword
unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?
8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the atestimony
of btwo
nations is a cwitness
unto you that I am God, that I remember one dnation
like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two enations
shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.
9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the asame
yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my bwords
according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one cword
ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my dwork
is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.
10 Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my awords
; neither bneed
ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.
11 For I command aall
men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall bwrite
the words which I speak unto them; for out of the cbooks
which shall be written I will djudge
the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.
12 For behold, I shall speak unto the aJews
and they shall bwrite
it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall cwrite
it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto dall
nations of the earth and they shall write it.
13 And it shall come to pass that the aJews
shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the blost
tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.
14 And it shall come to pass that my people, which are of the ahouse
of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the blands
of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered in cone
. And I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my dpeople
, who are of the ehouse
of Israel, that I am God, and that I fcovenanted
with gAbraham
that I would remember his hseed
iforever
.
1 AND now behold, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you; for I, Nephi, would not suffer that ye should suppose that ye are more righteous than the Gentiles shall be. For behold, except ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall all likewise aperish
; and because of the words which have been spoken ye need not suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed.
2 For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the acovenant
people of the Lord; and as many of the bJews
as will not repent shall be ccast
off; for the Lord dcovenanteth
with none save it be with them that erepent
and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel.
3 And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall abelieve
the words which are written; and bthey
shall carry them forth unto the cremnant
of our seed.
4 And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.
5 And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among athem
; wherefore, bthey
shall be restored unto the cknowledge
of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers.
6 And then shall they rejoice; for they shall aknow
that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their bscales
of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and a cdelightsome
people.
7 And it shall come to pass that the aJews
which are scattered also shall bbegin
to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become a delightsome people.
8 And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the arestoration
of his people upon the earth.
9 And with righteousness shall the aLord
God bjudge
the poor, and reprove with equity for the cmeek
of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
10 For the atime
speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great bdivision
among the people, and the wicked will he cdestroy
; and he will dspare
his people, yea, even if it so be that he must edestroy
the wicked by fire.
11 And arighteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
12 And then shall the wolf adwell
with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, together; and a little child shall lead them.
13 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
14 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.
15 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy amountain
; for the earth shall be full of the bknowledge
of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
16 Wherefore, the things of aall
nations shall be made known; yea, all things shall be made bknown
unto the children of men.
17 There is nothing which is secret save it shall be arevealed
; there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light; and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed.
18 Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at that aday
be revealed; and Satan shall have power over the hearts of the children of men bno
more, for a long time. And now, my beloved brethren, I make an end of my sayings.
1 AND now I, Nephi, make an end of my aprophesying
unto you, my beloved brethren. And I cannot write but a few things, which I know must surely come to pass; neither can I write but a few of the bwords
of my brother Jacob.
2 Wherefore, the things which I have written sufficeth me, save it be a few words which I amust
speak concerning the doctrine of Christ; wherefore, I shall speak unto you plainly, according to the plainness of my prophesying.
3 For my soul delighteth in aplainness
; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the bunderstanding
; for he speaketh unto men according to their clanguage
, unto their understanding.
4 Wherefore, I would that ye should remember that I have spoken unto you concerning that aprophet
which the Lord showed unto me, that should baptize the bLamb
of God, which should take away the sins of the world.
5 And now, if the Lamb of God, he being aholy
, should have need to be bbaptized
by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be cbaptized
, yea, even by water!
6 And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?
7 Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be aobedient
unto him in keeping his commandments.
8 Wherefore, after he was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the aform
of a bdove
.
9 And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the agate
, by which they should enter, he having set the bexample
before them.
10 And he said unto the children of men: aFollow
thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we bfollow
Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?
11 And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.
12 And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father agive
the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, bfollow
me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.
13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall afollow
the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no bhypocrisy
and no deception before God, but with real cintent
, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are dwilling
to take upon you the ename
of Christ, by fbaptism
—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the gbaptism
of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the htongue
of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.
14 But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should adeny
me, it would have been bbetter
for you that ye had not known me.
15 And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the awords
of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that bendureth
to the cend
, the same shall be saved.
16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall aendure
to the end, in following the bexample
of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.
17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and abaptism
by water; and then cometh a bremission
of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.
18 And then are ye in this astrait
and narrow bpath
which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which cwitnesses
of the dFather
and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.
19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow apath
, I would ask if all is bdone
? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken cfaith
in him, drelying
wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to esave
.
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a asteadfastness
in Christ, having a perfect brightness of bhope
, and a clove
of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and dendure
to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eeternal
life.
21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the away
; and there is bnone
other way nor cname
given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the ddoctrine
of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the eFather
, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is fone
God, without end. Amen.
1 AND now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?
2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had areceived
the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the btongue
of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?
3 aAngels
speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, bfeast
upon the cwords
of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will dtell
you all things what ye should do.
4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye aask
not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.
5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will ashow
unto you all things what ye should do.
6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall amanifest
himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.
7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the aunbelief
, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the bstiffneckedness
of men; for they will cnot
search dknowledge
, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in eplainness
, even as plain as word can be.
8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the aSpirit
which teacheth a man to bpray
ye would know that ye must cpray
; for the devil
spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must apray
always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall bpray
unto the Father in the cname
of Christ, that he will dconsecrate
thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the ewelfare
of thy soul.
1 AND now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I amighty
in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man bspeaketh
by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.
2 But behold, there are many that aharden
their bhearts
against the Holy cSpirit
, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.
3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great aworth
, and especially unto my people. For I bpray
continually for them by day, and mine ceyes
water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.
4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it apersuadeth
them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life beternal
.
5 And it speaketh aharshly
against sin, according to the bplainness
of the truth; wherefore, no man will be angry at the words which I have written save he shall be of the spirit of the devil.
6 I aglory
in bplainness
; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath credeemed
my soul from hell.
7 I have acharity
for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment-seat.
8 I have charity for the aJew
—I say Jew, because I mean them from whence I came.
9 I also have charity for the Gentiles. But behold, for none of athese
can I hope except they shall be breconciled
unto Christ, and enter into the cnarrow
dgate
, and ewalk
in the fstrait
path which leads to life, and continue in the path until the end of the day of gprobation
.
10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also aJew
, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and bbelieve
in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall cbelieve
in Christ ye will believe in these dwords
, for they are the ewords
of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they fteach
all men that they should do good.
11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with apower
and great bglory
, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.
12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his akingdom
at that great and last day.
13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one acrying
from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come.
14 And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the aJews
, and also my bwords
, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall ccondemn
you at the last day.
15 For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the ajudgment
bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must bobey
. Amen.