18 Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride.18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants; and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.20 The children whom thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the first shall again in thine ears say: The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where have they been? [1 Nephi 21:18–21]21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? [Isaiah 49:18–21]
The Lord invites Zion to look into the future and behold the multitudes that will come and adorn the land as a bride (v. 18). The symbolism of a bride is that a young lady on her wedding day is traditionally very meticulous in her dress and grooming. America is going to be made beautiful by those who come in the future. The land has lain waste and desolate, but will be built up until man will reason that it is too small for the multitude that has come. Their reasoning is fallacious however, because “there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord” (2 Nephi 1:6). These multitudes will come from afar seeking freedom because their former lands were “too strait”(restrictive) (v. 20). These multitudes will come after the time when the “first” of Joseph’s children, the Nephites, shall have forfeited their blessings in this “land which is choice above all other lands” (1 Nephi 2:20). The migrations to come are going to be so numerous that it will astonish the land of Zion, who was previously complaining that the Lord had forgotten her (v. 21).