2 Nephi 15 corresponds to Isaiah 5.
Literature: Isaiah poetically describes Yahweh’s relationship with Judah, sketching an allegory of Judah as a vineyard and Yahweh as its master. This is an analogy that not only borrows the agricultural imagery with which Israel would have been familiar, but also the lord/client economic relationship.
Victor Ludlow finds Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard “the most striking example of this literary form in the Old Testament. This form is echoed throughout the scriptures.… Its structure resembles that of the joyful oriental songs of the harvest or vintage festivals. It begins as a ‘love song’ of the master of the vineyard and moves toward a description of a walled garden and fragrant orchard similar to the one described in the Song of Solomon (Song 4:12–5; 5).”
The image also has slight parallels to Zenos’s allegory of the olive tree (Jacob 5). Although Zenos concentrates on an olive tree which is absent in Isaiah’s allegory, it does take place in a “vineyard.” Yahweh’s labor in the vineyard is a parallel theme. The two allegories are sufficiently different that it is unlikely that Isaiah was the source for Zenos or conversely that Zenos was the source for Isaiah. Each appears to be tapping into known agricultural imagery. Further, both the vineyard and the olive tree have been used to symbolize the covenant people. Either is a legitimate choice to represent Israel or Judah in the analogy.
Comparison: The Book of Mormon text varies slightly from the King James Version. In Isaiah the passage begins with “Now” while the text in 2 Nephi begins with “And then.” Both serve as coordinating conjunctions, with “and then” making a tighter connection to the previous passage. The Isaiah beginning, however, would work better as the opening of a separate text. The wording likely results from the translation in each case, relative to the break or connection of this chapter to the previous one. Blenkinsopp removes this conjunction entirely and simply begins: “Let me sing for my friend.… ”
This text is an extended poem. While it is thematically related to the previous text, it differs both in form and imagery. The previous text (the prophecies of calamities, the confusion of the social order, and the curse upon the daughters of Zion) has a conspicuous conclusion. It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that the master’s song of his vineyard is a separate text that Isaiah inserted at this point.
The 1830 edition’s chapter division does not set this rhapsody off from the unit. I conclude, therefore, that the poetic text with the prophetic pronouncement of the coming destruction had already been incorporated into the book of Isaiah by the time the brass plates were created.