The imagery in this passage is of contention—not military but verbal. The servant will “smite” his adversary “with the strength of my mouth.” In the honor/shame culture of the ancient Mediterranean world, a means of reasserting one’s honor was in a verbal game of challenge/riposte. Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh describe this aspect of Mediterranean culture: “In this competition for honor the game of challenge-riposte is a central phenomenon and one that must always be played out in public. It consists of a challenge (almost any word, gesture, or action) that seeks to undermine the honor of another person and a response that answers in equal measure or ups the ante (and thereby challenges in return). Both positive (gifts, compliments) and negative (insults, dares) challenges must be answered to avoid a serious loss of face.”
One of the most spiritually important occasions of such verbal sparring comes in Matthew 4:1–11, where Satan challenges Jesus. Jesus had just been baptized and declared to be the Son of God. Satan, as the accuser, tests Jesus’s loyalty to God by statements that challenge that declaration: “If thou be the Son of God… ” (Matt. 4:3, 6). In the culture of the challenge-riposte exchange, it is significant that Jesus responds verbally and with statements from scripture which not only demonstrate his fidelity to God and God’s word but which challenge Satan in return (i.e., “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” Matt. 4:7).
Meaning for Jacob’s Audience: Given the possibility of a newly formed group, its new members would certainly have a different religious tradition. Although they were adopted into Israel (at least from the lack of contrary indications), they would nevertheless have a very different worldview. Later Nehor convincingly preaches a philosophy that mixes the Nephite religion with a secular, non-Nephite perspective. (See “Excursus: Religion of the Nehors,” following Alma 1.) Perhaps this passage suggests a similar difference in Nephi’s new community, and the Isaiah quotation was an assertion that Yahweh was equal in debate to any human philosopher.