“The Lord Will Set His Hand”

D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner

These verses sketch a history of the Jews from the middle of the first millennium b.c. through the Second Coming.

Verse 10: A chronicle of the destruction of the Jews and their exile to Babylon through 586 b.c.

Verse 11: Nephi’s prophecy that his people (the Jews) will return to possess “the land of Jerusalem,” which happened beginning in 539 b.c.

Verse 12: The succeeding centuries of wars culminate in the coming of the Only Begotten of the Father and his ministry, around a.d. 30–33, and his rejection by some sinful, hard, and stubborn Jews.

Verse 13: Having seen all this in advance, Nephi wrote that God’s Son will be crucified, buried, and after three days rise again “with healing in his wings,” a figurative expression referring to his healing the wounds of mortal sorrows, pains, and death and providing salvation to believing souls. Nephi said, “I have seen his day,” and because he was an eyewitness of these most glorious events in all of history, he felt to “magnify his holy name” (compare the similar sentiment of Mary, Jesus’ mother, in Luke 1:46).

Verse 14: After Christ’s resurrection and multiple appearances to believers, Nephi saw that the Jews will be destroyed again—which happened in the great Jewish-Roman wars of a.d. 66–70, under Vespasian and Titus, and a.d. 132–135, under Hadrian. It happened because they fought “against God and the people of his church.”

Verse 15: Jews will be scattered worldwide by Babylon and by such other nations after Babylon as the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Islamic empires, Crusaders, and Turks.

Verses 16–17: Jews in their scattered condition (in the “dispersion,” Greek diaspora) will be scourged by these other nations for many generations until they “shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God” and his infinite atonement. When that day finally comes, that they “believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name” and “look not forward any more for another Messiah,” then “the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state.” That restoration will be heralded as “a marvelous work and a wonder” (compare Isaiah 29:14).

Verse by Verse: The Book of Mormon: Vol. 1

References