That is all we know about the authorship of this prophetic word. It is almost identical with Micah 4:1-3. Either of these prophets may be the author, or, they may be quoting from a common source. It is one of the sure words of prophecy, of which the Apostle Peter says: “Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” It is a “word” of more than common importance; otherwise it would not have been incorporated in the texts of two great Old Testament Prophets, and then in the record of Nephi.
Concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Judah and Jerusalem are concerned, as being the immediate objects of the prophecy, but, as the context shows, it concerns the entire world. God has so ordained it, that the blessings of light and life are to come to mankind through one chosen family, the descendants of Abraham. They are the wires by means of which the power from the central, Divine Source has been, and will continue to be, diffused to all the world. So, the Apostle Paul: “If the casting away of them”—their dispersion—“be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them”—their gathering—“be but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:15)