“The Leaders of This People Cause Them to Err”

Brant Gardner

Blenkinsopp suggests that verse 15 “has the appearance of a Second Temple gloss, cf. Zech. 13:2–6, which also speaks of the nabi [prophet] who speaks… ‘falsehood.’” This interpretation is attractive because the attempt to identify the specific head and tail do not seem to fit Isaiah’s prophetic style. The identifications also ignore the “palm branch and reed.” Verse 16 certainly refers to the leaders of Israel, but in the general sense, which follows the more general accusations in Isaiah. Of course, if this is a second temple gloss, its presence in the Book of Mormon would be significant evidence that the specific model for the translation was the KJV text, a point that is quite likely in any case. This does not mean that there was no Isaiah on Nephi’s plates, simply that there was no new translation directly from the plates.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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