Reading Isaiah
Isaiah is upon us... but do not panic! Here is my short, 3-step guide to help you understand Isaiah’s writings:
1) Remember that Isaiah was a poet, so you're reading poetry in these chapters. Imagine these chapters written in verse form and you won't expect a simple, straight forward narrative, instead you'll read it looking for symbols, images, and meaning within a poetic form.
2) Ancient Hebrew poetry wasn't built upon rhyme or meter like most English poetry; instead, Isaiah preferred various forms of parallelism (for examples of the forms of parallelism in Isaiah see https://byudchw.wordpress.com/deeper-understandings-of-isaiah/hebrew-poetry/).
Basically, parallelism is a form of creative repetition, as in this example of synonymous parallelism from 2 Ne. 12.17:
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low.
Sometimes instead of repeating the same idea, Isaiah uses an antithetical construction, offering conflicting images, as in this example from 2 Ne. 12.5:
Come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord; yea, come, for ye have all gone astray.
Generally speaking, if you don't understand what Isaiah is saying, it's OK, because he will say it again in the next phrase.
3) Finally, the King James translation is beautiful and poetic, but it's also sometimes really difficult to understand. Take this example of Isaiah's prophecy about Babylon in 2 Ne. 24.23:
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Here's the same verse from the New International Version (NIV):
“I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,"
declares the Lord Almighty.
What I'm saying is that it's helpful to read Isaiah in other translations. If you don’t have other translations at home, look at biblegateway.com where you can find a large number of English translations of the Bible.
2 Nephi 12 and 16
Notice that the organizing principle of the poem in 2 Ne. 12 is verticality.
1) What are some images of elevation or ascension?
2) Identify images of descent or depth.
3) What is Isaiah's primary message in this poem and why does he use elevation and descent to convey it?
4) Why might this chapter have been interesting to Nephi?
In 2 Nephi 16 Isaiah describes an experience he had in the tabernacle.
1) What does Isaiah see?
2) What is his reaction to it?
3) How does it change him?
4) What does he do as a result of this experience?
5) How might this chapter relate to Nephi?
