This passage continues the metaphor of marriage by promising the blessing of children. Their coming and their number change the sadness of barrenness into joy. Their number requires a larger home (“enlarge the place of thy tent”). The children of this barren woman will “break forth,” “inherit the Gentiles” (presumably their possessions), and repopulate “desolate cities.” Jesus’s Bountiful audience would perhaps resonate most particularly to repopulating “desolate cities,” which surely were a result of the cataclysmic destructions catalogued in 3 Nephi 8.
This reversal echoes similar reversals in the Savior’s discourse. The Nephites (representing a branch of Israel) will participate in the victory of the final days, triumphing over the wicked (unrepentant Gentiles).