2
Ne 23:1 The burden of Babylon
Isaiah
writes several chapters which can be referred to as the burden chapters. They
describe the judgments of the Lord on different peoples and constitute Isaiah
13-23. All of these chapters can be viewed as a type for the destructions
promised for the wicked of the latter-days. In other words, the prophecies
refer to the destruction of those kingdoms in ancient times and symbolize the
destruction of the wicked in the last days.
The
best example of all is the burden of Babylon. Babylon, or Babel is the chief
city of Babylonia. It was founded after the flood by the wicked Nimrod and is
the city in which the tower of Babel was built. It represented the center of
Mesopotamian influence for centuries. Scripturally speaking, it represents the
wickedness of the world, the kingdom of Satan, and the great and abominable
whore. In this chapter, we learn a lot about how the Lord will destroy the
wicked when he comes again. The unenlightened, however, see in this prophecy
only Isaiah’s description of the fall of ancient Babylon.
2
Ne 23:2 exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand
This
shaking of hands is not a friendly gesture. It refers to giving the enemy a
signal prior to attacking them. It signifies that in the last days the Lord
will give the wicked a signal, or sign, before his armies attack. But we should
note the great mercies of the Lord. He would first raise an ensign to the
nations, the restored church, to teach them the new and everlasting covenant;
he would lift a banner upon the high mountain by building temples all over the
earth; and he would exalt the warning voice through his prophets and servants.
Having rejected all these overtures, the wicked would be given a sign—the last
of many—the Lord would shake the hand before the enemy. It means their
destruction is imminent. The wicked may run to the houses of the nobles seeking
protection, but they will receive none, for it is the Lord’s nobles and
sanctifies ones who will triumph.
“Jehovah’s sanctified ones (Josh.
3:5) are those who are temple worthy, who actually attend the temple, and who
are made holy by Christ’s power. In ancient Israel the soldiers prepared for the
holy war by participating in holy rituals connected with the temple (Deut.
23:10-15). In this dispensation, Jesus Christ’s soldiers (members of the
Church) prepare for the battle against Babylon by participating in temple rituals.”
(Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, 131 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed.
by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 200)
2
Ne 23:4 the Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the
battle
One
interpretation of the Lord’s army is that they are heavenly hosts. They have
come literally ‘from the end of heaven’, and
they represent ‘the weapons of his indignation’
(v. 5). This interpretation is not inconsistent with other scriptures of the
armies of the Lord. The heavenly host was sent to protect the prophet Elisha
from the king of Syria. As Elisha reassured his servant, ‘he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more
than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord I pray thee,
open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man;
and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha’ (2 Kings 6:16-17). In the destruction of the last
days, angels will be commissioned to bring destruction upon the wicked. The
Lord explained that the angels are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to go
forth in the earth, ‘the angels are crying unto the
Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the
fields’ (DC 86:5). The book of Revelation makes it clear that the Lord’s
army, the angels, will be given specific power to destroy men in certain predetermined
ways.
The
literal interpretation of this verse would mean the multitudes gathered against
Babylon are the armies of the Medes and Persians. The “Medes and Persians under
Cyrus the Great dammed the Euphrates River and marched through the riverbed and
under the walls of Babylon to capture the city and overthrow the empire. The
significance of the incident is more clearly indicated by considering the
imagery of the term Babylon in a spiritual sense. The call is for the ‘sanctified ones’ (Isa 13:2), the Saints of the
latter days, to gather together and join with God in overthrowing wickedness
(Babylon) from the world.” (1981 Old Testament Institute Manual, p. 153)
2
Ne 23:6 the day of the Lord is at hand
“To the Babylonians the invasion of the
Medes and Persians, the destruction of their homes and cities, was ‘the day of the Lord.’ It was the day of his
vengeance and judgment upon them. The prophetic imagery, which here refers to
the destruction of Babylon, is applicable to all such catastrophes of historic
import. It is, therefore, also descriptive of the last judgment before the
Millennium, which is, the fullest meaning of the word, ‘the day of the Lord.’” (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary on
the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 363)
2
Ne 23:6 it shall come as a destruction from the
Almighty
“’Do
you think there is calamity abroad now among the people?’ Not much. All we have
yet heard and all we have experienced is scarcely a preface to the sermon that
is going to be preached. When the testimony of the Elders ceases to be given,
and the Lord says to them, ‘Come home; I will now preach my own sermons to the
nations of the earth,’ all you now know can scarcely be called a preface to the
sermon that will be preached with fire and sword, tempests, earthquakes, hail,
rain, thunders and lightnings, and fearful destruction…You will hear of
magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing
the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulphing mighty
cities. Famine will spread over the nations, and nation will rise up against
nation, kingdom against kingdom, and states against states, in our own country
and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for the
blood and lives of their neighbours, of their families, or for their own lives. They will be like the Jaredites who
preceded the Nephites upon this continent, and will destroy each other to the
last man, through the anger that the Devil will place in their hearts, because
they have rejected the words of life and are given over to Satan to do whatever
he listeth to do with them. You may think that the little you hear of now is
grievous; yet the faithful of God's people will see days that will cause them
to close their eyes because of the sorrow that will come upon the wicked
nations. The hearts of the faithful will be filled with pain and anguish for
them.” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book
Depot, 1854-1886], 8: 123 - 124.)
2
Ne 23:7-8 every man’s heart shall melt; And they
shall be afraid
The
destructions of the last days will be so severe that they will strike fear into
the hearts of the wicked. From the Book of Revelation, ‘the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men…said to the
mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’ (Rev 6:16). ‘I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face
of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon
every man; And the saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord,
am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and
consume the wicked with unquenchable fire’ (DC 63:33-4).
In
spite of the phrase suggesting that the saints shall narrowly escape these
destructions, the Lord has been more reassuring in other scriptures. He has
said that the righteous need not fear, ‘if ye are
prepared ye shall not fear’ (DC 38:30) and ‘great
tribulations shall be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve’
(Moses 7:61). The saints are given a fire insurance policy if they are living
the law of sacrifice, ‘verily it is a day of
sacrifice, and a day for the tithing of my people; for he that is tithed shall
not be burned at his coming’ (see DC 64:23, but note that at the time DC
64 was given, the term “tithing” referred to all church offerings not just the
tenth of one’s income). By way of conclusion, if one is prepared—having
repented, come unto the Lord, and kept the law of sacrifice, there is no reason
to fear. Those righteous individuals will escape the burning planned for the
wicked. Hence the advice, ‘stand ye in holy places
and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh
quickly, saith the Lord, Amen’ (DC 87:8).
2
Ne 23:10 the sun shall be darkened in his going
forth
This
passage is a variation of the commonly given sign of the Second Coming—the
stars fall from the heavens, the moon turns to blood, and the sun refuses to give
light. Many have mistakenly spoken of meteor showers and an occasional
orange-red moon as fulfillment of this prophecy. This sign in the heavens will
be much more dramatic than that. Imagine how powerful the signs of Christ’s
death were, when the sun was darkened for three hours in Jerusalem and for
three days in the Americas. Such a dramatic sign should be expected again, ‘there shall appear a great sign in heaven, and all people
shall see it together’ (DC 88:93). This concept is contained in the scriptures
in more than 10 places. All of the most important passages describing the signs
of the coming of the Son of God contain this concept (see DC 29:14; 45:42;
88:87; 133:49; Matt 24:29, JS-M 1:33; Rev 6:12).
2
Ne 23:12 I will make a man more precious than fine
gold
If
men actually become precious in the eyes of women, this will be one of the
Lord’s greatest miracles. The concept being portrayed by Isaiah is that so many
men will die in the wars attending the Second Coming that there will be a great
mismatch between the numbers of living men and women. Men will only be
“precious” in the sense that there will be relatively few of them left. Hence
the unpopular but accurate passage, ‘seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own
apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach’ (Isa
4:1).
2
Ne 23:13 I will shake the heavens, and the earth
shall remove out of her place
If
the earth were literally moved from its current location and orbit, that would
certainly cause the prophesied events of the heavens shaking, the earth reeling
to and fro as a drunken man, the stars falling from the heavens, and the sun
being darkened. This is all part of the creation of a new heaven and a new
earth prophesied by John, ‘And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away’
(Rev 21:1).
“When the earth was framed and brought
into existence and man was placed upon it, it was near the throne of our Father
in heaven…When man fell, the earth fell into space, and took up its abode in
this planetary system…This is the glory the earth came from, and when it is
glorified it will return again unto the presence of the Father.” (Journal of
Discourses, 17:143 as taken from
Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett,
[American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 204)
2
Ne 23:16 their houses shall be spoiled and their
wives ravished
Notice
how similar this prophecy is to one about which the time and place are better
known. The prophet Zecharaiah prophesies that when Jerusalem is under siege
just prior to the Second Coming that the following will happen, ‘I will gather all nations against Jersualem to battle; and
the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and
half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people
shall not be cut off from the city’ (Zech 14:2).
2
Ne 23:17 I will stir up the Medes against them
We
finally return to the history of Babylon. In order to understand this reference
to “the Medes”, we need to review some of the history. In Isaiah’s day, the
Babylonians were ruled by the powerful Assyrian empire. This continued until
about 607 BC when Nebuchadnezzar and his father regained control of Babylon.
The kingdom of Babylon continued the splendor and greatness of the preceding
empire for several decades. Josephus records, “[Nebuchadnezzar] built walls
about the inner city…and adorned its gates gloriously, he built another
palace…to describe the vast height and immense riches of which, it would
perhaps be too much for me to attempt. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
Book X, Chap. XI, v. 1)
“Babylon was one of the great cities of
the ancient world, perhaps the greatest. Its walls were, for height and width,
one of the wonders of the world. The temple of Bel, the terraced
("hanging") gardens, the immense copper gates, and the artificial
lake were, up to that time, the greatest achievements of human skill and
ingenuity. The fields and farms and flocks yielded almost incredible returns,
and the wealth, luxury and power of the ruling classes were correspondingly
great. If any city, or country, could be regarded as invincible, Babylonia and
Babylon might be so considered. But centuries before their fall Isaiah
predicted, with supernatural knowledge of the details, the destruction of the
city and the overthrow of the government.” (Reynolds and Sjodahl, Commentary
on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 364)
The
glory of Babylon would not last. Its decline began with the pride of
Belshazzar. He was a king of Babylon in about 539 BC when the Jews were still
captive in Babylon. One evening, Belshazzar had taken the holy vessels, which
had previously been pillaged from the temple of Solomon, and used them for one
of his feasts. The anger of the Lord was manifest when he saw a hand writing a
message of doom on the wall of his palace. Daniel interpreted the message. Part
of the message was interpreted as follows, ‘Thy
kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians…In that night was
Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the
kingdom, being about threescore and two years old’ (Dan 5:28-31).
“Babylon…became so wicked that her power over surrounding nations lasted only until 539 B.C. That was the year the Medes and Persians came sweeping down from the mountains and high plateaus to the east and conquered Babylon in a single night. They were led by Cyrus, whom Isaiah identified by name around 175 years before Cyrus was born (see isa. 44:28; 45:1). After Babylon was overthrown, Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 538 B.C.” (W. Cleon Skousen, Isaiah Speaks To Modern Times, 260 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 198)
2
Ne 23:19 Babylon…shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah
Just
as Lot and his family were required to flee from Sodom and Gomorrah or else
they would be destroyed. The righteous, today, must flee Babylon, or the
wickedness of the world, to avoid destruction. On their way out of Babylon,
they must not look back as Lot’s wife was famous for doing. John the Revelator
saw the destruction of spiritual Babylon, ‘Babylon
the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the
hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For
all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication…And I heard
another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues’ (Rev
18:2-4).
2
Ne 23:20 It shall never be inhabited
This
promise has been fulfilled. After Babylon was taken by the Parthians in about
144 BC, the city had become completely powerless. “By the time of Christ, only
a few astronomers and mathematicians continued to live in the ancient, sparsely
populated city. After they left, Babylon remained a deserted tell
(mound), which sand and brush gradually covered until it became a hill used
only by wild animals, and as grazing land for nomadic flocks” (Isaiah:
Prophet, Seer, and Poet, by Victor L. Ludlow, p. 185). Even today, the
ancient city of Babylon is barren, completely uninhabited, and only of interest
for its archeological value. The site of the city is in modern day Iraq, not
far from Baghdad.
The
prophet, Jeremiah, also prophesied that Babylon would eventually be completely
desolate, never to be inhabited again. This is what the Lord had done to Sodom
and Gomorrah:
‘Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but
it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be
astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of
the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it
shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from
generation to generation.
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities
thereof, saith the Lord; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any
son of man dwell therein.’ (Jer 50:13,39-40)
LeGrand Richards
“[Babylon] was the greatest city in all
the world….Yet Isaiah announced that that city would be destroyed; he said that
it would never be rebuilt, that it would never be inhabited from generation to
generation, that it would become the abode of reptiles and wild animals and
that the Arabs would no more pitch their tents there. That was a declaration
that the greatest city in the world would not only be destroyed, but it would
also never be rebuilt.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1954, p. 54 as taken
from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas
Bassett, pp. 147-7)