In Isaiah 2:2 also 2 Nephi12:2) the prophet Isaiah indicates that he is going to talk about those things which are to "come to pass in the last days." The material Isaiah gives us in Isaiah 5 (2 Nephi 15) evidently pertains to this same time period; thus the events enumerated here are to take place primarily in the dispensation of the fulness of times. Concerning the possible fulfillment of this prophecy by Isaiah, Elder LeGrand Richards has written:
In fixing the time of the great gathering, Isaiah seemed to indicate that it would take place in the day of the railroad train and the airplane:"And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
"None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
"Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
"Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it." (Isaiah 5:26-29.)
Since there were neither trains nor airplanes in that day, Isaiah could hardly have mentioned them by name. However, he seems to have described them in unmistakable words. How better could "their horses' hoofs be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind" than in the modern train? How better could "their roaring . . . be like a lion" than in the roar of the airplane? Trains and airplanes do not stop for night. Therefore, was not Isaiah justified in saying: "none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken"? With this manner of transportation the Lord can really "hiss unto them from the end of the earth," that "they shall come with speed swiftly." Indicating that Isaiah must have foreseen the airplane, he stated: "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (Isaiah 60:8) (Israel! Do You Know? [Deseret Book Co., 1954], p. 182.)