“Gathered Together Again”

Brant Gardner

After the judgments of the Holy One of Israel have caused them to be driven to and fro, Israel will be returned to a knowledge of their Redeemer, and will be returned to the lands of their inheritance. For Jacob's people, this becomes also a promise that their lineage might also be returned to the lands of that inheritance, as Jacob has clearly told them that they are inheritors of that birthright.

Social speculation: It is possible that a new people in a new land have emotional ties to the land that they have left, and Jacob's sermon is speaking to that ache for a land and inheritance lost - by assuring them that the promises of the prophets show that they will be returned. Of course such a return would be so far in the future as to be of no benefit to the current population (and probably not that much of an enticement to their posterity after so many years in what they certainly would then consider their land), but for the current population, there must have been those to whom this promise of a return (and their prophesied participation in that blessing) would have been a comfort.

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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