Isaiah 2 as Nephi carries it in 2 Nephi 12: 14 of 22 verses read differently, one hard verse turns plain, one keeps two ancient readings at once, and the day of the Lord reaches every nation
Deep Dive · Catch-up series, chapter 2 of 14 (Isaiah 29, then Isaiah 2–14 in order) · Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 12
New here? The shallow-end version of this chapter is in the CFM-02 lesson, “God Is My Salvation.” This is the deep end.
A chapter the Saints have never let go of
After Isaiah 29, Isaiah 2 is the most-quoted chapter in Isaiah: 317 citations in the Scripture Citation Index. Moroni quoted its opening verses to Joseph Smith on the night of September 21, 1823. And it’s the first chapter of Isaiah that Nephi copies into his record. He passes over Isaiah 1 and starts here, in 2 Nephi 12.
It opens with the mountain:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2).
Isaiah’s contemporary Micah carries nearly the same prophecy (Micah 4:1–3). Latter-day Saints have long applied it to temples built in the tops of the Rocky Mountains. That’s a type, and a good one. It isn’t the fulfillment.
When the last days are
The Hebrew behind “the last days” is ‘acharit hayyamim: the end of the days. Isaiah isn’t pointing at Joseph Smith’s day. He’s pointing at the end-time, the days that close out this world. Avraham Gileadi reads it that way, and so do I.
Isaiah gives you the receipt two verses later: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (2:4). Look at the world. That hasn’t happened yet. The whole prophecy, 2:2 through 2:4, is still ahead.
What the mountains and hills are
Isaiah’s mountains aren’t only rock. Avraham Gileadi, who has spent his life in Isaiah’s Hebrew, reads a mountain in Isaiah as a literal mountain and as a nation or kingdom, and the mountains and hills together as the large nations and the small ones. Isaiah shows it himself: “The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together” (Isaiah 13:4). And again: “that the mountains might flow down at thy presence… that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” (64:1–2). Jeremiah calls Babylon a mountain: “O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth” (Jeremiah 51:25).
Now read 2:2 again. The mountain of the LORD’s house is the nation of the Lord’s house: His people, gathered around His temple. Established in the top of the mountains: the Hebrew word for “top” is rosh, head. It’s the promise Moses gave Israel: “the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail” (Deuteronomy 28:13). Exalted above the hills: above the smaller nations. Avraham points out that the Dead Sea scroll of Isaiah, a thousand years older than the Hebrew text behind our Bible, reads as the head of the mountains rather than in.
And all nations shall flow unto it. That verb, nahar, is related to the Hebrew word for river, and Isaiah uses it as a verb only twice. The other time is Zion’s gathering: “Then thou shalt see, and flow together… the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee” (Isaiah 60:5). Rivers run downhill. These nations flow up the mountain, home.
And the Book of Mormon says it outright. Later in this same chapter, the Bible says the day of the Lord comes “upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up” (Isaiah 2:14). Nephi’s text keeps the mountains and hills and then names what they are: “and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people” (2 Nephi 12:14).
So 2:2 is a nation before it’s a place. The pioneers who raised a temple in the tops of the Rocky Mountains lived a type of it. The fulfillment comes at the end: the Lord’s people made the head of the nations, two centers the world comes to, “for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (2:3), and a world that learns war no more.
The first thing to know: 14 of 22 verses differ
Lay 2 Nephi 12 beside Isaiah 2 and 14 of the 22 verses read differently. Most differences are small: a word added, a phrase turned. Four of them change what the chapter says.
1. The hard verse: Isaiah 2:9
Here’s the King James Bible:
“And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.” (Isaiah 2:9)
Read it slowly. The common man bows down. The great man humbles himself. And the answer is forgive them not? To make sense of it, you have to reach back a verse and decide they’re bowing to idols (2:8). Humility is what brings forgiveness nearly everywhere else in scripture.
Now the Book of Mormon:
“And the mean man boweth not down, and the great man humbleth himself not, therefore, forgive him not.” (2 Nephi 12:9)
Two nots. Now the verse reads plainly: the people who won’t bow and won’t humble themselves are the ones who aren’t forgiven. And it fits the chapter, which is about pride being brought low: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled… and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:11).
2. The ships: two ancient readings in one verse
The King James Bible, following the Hebrew:
“And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.” (Isaiah 2:16)
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament made before the time of Christ, reads “every ship of the sea” instead of “ships of Tarshish.” So the ancient texts disagree on this line.
The Book of Mormon has both:
“And upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.” (2 Nephi 12:16)
Here’s what I see: the Hebrew kept one phrase, the Greek kept the other, and the brass plates kept both.
3. The day of the Lord comes to every nation
In the Bible, the day of the Lord in Isaiah 2 falls on “every one that is proud and lofty” and on the land of Israel’s world: the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the high mountains and hills (2:12–14).
The Book of Mormon widens it, and moves it closer:
“For the day of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one” (2 Nephi 12:12).
“And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people” (12:14).
Soon. All nations. Every people. The Bible’s version names the proud and Israel’s own world. Nephi’s names every nation on earth.
4. The glory that strikes
Three times the Bible tells people to hide in the rocks “for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty” (2:10, 19, 21). Each time, the Book of Mormon adds what that glory will do: it “shall smite thee” (12:10), “shall smite them” (12:19, 21).
And the first of the three is addressed directly: “O ye wicked ones, enter into the rock” (12:10).
The smaller ones worth noticing
- A plea added. After “let us walk in the light of the Lord,” Nephi’s text adds: “yea, come, for ye have all gone astray, every one to his wicked ways” (12:5). It sounds like Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.”
- A prayer, named. The Bible says “Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people” and leaves you to work out who “thou” is. Nephi’s text says it: “Therefore, O Lord, thou hast forsaken thy people” (12:6). And the people don’t just “are soothsayers”; they “hearken unto soothsayers.”
- “When,” not “that.” “In the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established” (12:2). The nations flow to it once the Lord’s house is established.
The one thing to take with you
Nephi said why he was about to copy these chapters of Isaiah: “that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men” (2 Nephi 11:8).
For all men. That’s what the additions in chapter 12 do. In both versions the mountain draws all nations. In Nephi’s, the day of the Lord reaches all nations and every people too. Nephi’s Isaiah 2 is for the whole world, and that includes you.
Read Isaiah 2:9, then 2 Nephi 12:9. Two small words, and a hard verse reads plainly. That’s what it looks like when you lay Nephi’s Isaiah beside the Bible’s.
Previous deep dive: Isaiah 29 and Nephi’s eighteen verses. The Seven Ways People Read Isaiah. Which One Are You?
Ken Krogue is a co-founder of The Covenant Project and has been deeply searching Isaiah for more than ten years. He writes with two AI research partners, Orson (Claude) and Nathan (ChatGPT), and approves every word.
