Post by Nephi –
As I continue reading the writings of Isaiah, I am very interested in this next prophecy. I personally witnessed most of it take place. Its conclusion I saw in vision. I witness it was fulfilled just as over a hundred years ago, Isaiah said it would be.
Many of Isaiah’s prophecies of destruction are aimed at the southern kingdom of Judah and in this one they are again the target. Isaiah prophesied that Judah would fall and Jerusalem would be ruined as all their leaders, soldiers, prophets, craftsmen, and teachers would be removed, leaving children and base types as rulers in the land. Famine, poverty and anarchy would follow.
This is exactly what we saw happen. When a city is conquered, all those who are in a position to lead or provide, are taken captive, both to be utilized in their new land by the conquerers and also to prevent those conquered from rising again. Complete fulfillment of this prophecy happened shortly after our family left Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and took countless people captive to Babylon. Some of these were great men taken in Nebuchadnezzar’s multiple conquests include Daniel, Ezekiel and even the Prophet Jeremiah.
The men of Judah were condemned for provoking the Lord with their sins of pride and oppression and interestingly enough, the women were called “daughters of Zion” who, as they should have been living virtuously in preparation of Christ – the bridegroom, were adorning themselves with all manner of worldly adornments to attract adulterous lovers and were wantonly seeking for pleasure in promiscuity and indulgence.
Isaiah warned that because of their sins, all the temporal, vain and worldly adornments with which the proud “daughters of Zion” were using to beautify themselves would be taken away thus leaving them repulsive and disgusting.
Then in their humble and pathetic state they would sit by the city gates and cry in vain because the lovers they were seeking would have fallen by the sword, and those remaining were not interested in these wretched foul daughters no matter what they offered.
The real lesson here is that any alternative plan to the Lord’s plan of happiness will ultimately fail and will leave us in sorrow. So really, the men of Judah were receiving a rebuke for their wicked, weak, selfish and sinful leadership. And the women were rebuked for their immorality. Though it is easy to take Isaiah’s term “daughters of Zion” and conclude it is about women, it actually can be used to include all those under covenant and sometimes he has used it to mean the personification of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, we all need to keep the covenants we make.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 13:1 – 26)
