“All the People Who Are of the House of Israel, Will I Gather In”

Brant Gardner

Noel B. Reynolds has analyzed Zenos’s prophetic themes:

Words of Zenos are most obviously detected in the following Book of Mormon texts: 1 Nephi 19:8–17; 22:15–17, 23–26; 2 Nephi 2:30; Jacob 5:2–77; Alma 33:3–18; 34:7; Helaman 8:18–19; 15:10–13; 3 Nephi 10:14–16. These texts deal with such main themes as God’s covenant with his people, the House of Israel; his remembrance of that covenant, preserving his people wherever they may be; the general wickedness of people who will reject God and the testimony of Jesus Christ through pride, hatred, and unbelief; the scattering of branches of Israel to the four quarters of the earth; the existence of a choice, remote land; the recovery or gathering of Israel, the first last and the last first; the joy and fruitfulness of the righteous; and the suffering, grief, and destruction of the wicked, especially by fire.

Of particular interest are the themes of covenants between Yahweh and Israel, the scattering, and the gathering. The gathering was a moot point until the conquest of the northern kingdom which scattered the ten tribes. Isaiah was contemporary with that conquest and speaks of the gathering of those lost tribes. Thus, the southern prophets were not concerned with a gathering until the events that caused the scattering were upon them. Isaiah does not prophesy the gathering before the scattering occurred. By analogy, we may see in Zenos a similar voice in the north to Isaiah in the south, and perhaps at a similar time. His theme of gathering harmonizes well with Isaiah’s timing. If Zenos was the Isaiah of the northern kingdom, then his focus on Messianic themes is also consistent with Isaiah’s interests.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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