The following transcript is intended to aid in your study. However, while we try to go through the transcript, our transcripts are primarily computer-generated and often contain errors. Please forgive the transcripts’ imperfections.
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[00:00:00] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Lehi has passed away. The families have parted ways. And those who followed Nephi are living after the manner of happiness. That's what we studied last week. Now we're introduced to Jacob, who was Nephi's younger brother and was now ordained as a teacher for the Nephites. And he wanted the covenant people to know that God would never forget them.
So they must never forget him. Jacob will do this using the words of Isaiah. And the reason he chose Isaiah's words is so that we can learn and glorify the name of our God today. As we study second Nephi chapter six through 10, we are going to do exactly that. And I am thrilled for you to meet our guest who is going to help us do both of those things.
Welcome to the Sunday on Monday study group, a desert bookshelf plus original brought to you by LDS living, where we take the come follow me lesson for the week. And we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy. Use a lack hall in. If you're new to our study group, welcome. We're so glad to have you here.
Go ahead and follow the link in our description, and it's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your come follow me study. Just like my friend. Linda Cook. Hi, Linda. Thanks for coming up and saying hello. Now, another awesome thing about our study group is each week we're joined by two of my friends, but sometimes it's just one friend.
And today it is one friend and I am thrilled to introduce you to Professor Don Parry. Hello, Don.
[00:01:20] Don Parry: Hi, it's so good to see you. Thank you for this opportunity. What a privilege.
[00:01:25] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, well, I'm super excited because I used two of your books in studying for today's episode. You have a new one. Actually this, the first one is your new one and it's called search diligently the words of Isaiah.
And so that has been awesome. I highly recommend anyone wanting to study more about Isaiah from Don's perspective, get that book. And then I also used your book preserved in translation, which we're going to get to later on in this whole episode, but that book. Wow. Like my jaw dropped. I have poured over those pages.
I can't wait for us to talk about what's in that book. Are you excited?
[00:02:02] Don Parry: Totally. Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:02:04] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Well, and of course, since we're going to be diving into the words of Isaiah, who better to have than you? So I can't wait. I told Don at the very beginning, this mostly was a selfish invitation on my part because I just want to sit and learn from Don and ask him questions.
So if you're like me, just grab your scriptures. And your scripture journal, if you have one, something to mark your scriptures with, because we are going to dig in to second Nephi chapter six through 10. So here we go. I'm so excited. So Don, the first thing we do in this year studying the book of Mormon is the come follow me manual has asked teachers to ask their students, what did the Holy ghost teach you as you studied or read this specific scripture block?
So that's my question to you. What did the spirit teach you as you read second Nephi six through 10?
[00:02:49] Don Parry: The, the Holy Ghost has taught me to be much more expressive in the ways that I, uh, express joy and happiness and thankfulness to the Lord. And I'll give you some examples. These do,
[00:03:06] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I'm wondering what you mean by that.
[00:03:08] Don Parry: Yes. If we go to Jacob, Jacob's sermon. If everyone would please turn to 2 Nephi 9, I'm going to express what I mean, and I think by the time I am through explaining this, that, um, people will see how thankful I am to the Holy Ghost for you. for this teaching. So 2nd Nephi 9 verse 8, there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 expressions we're going to quickly look at that where Jacob is exclaiming the greatness of God.
So verse 8, the very first expression, Oh, the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace. Now please jump to verse 10 of the same chapter. Look at the very first sentence. It also begins with, Oh, Oh, how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth away for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster. Please jump to 13.
Verse 13, same chapter, Oh, how great the plan of our God. Now, verse 17, we're halfway through looking at these. Verse 17, Oh, the greatness. And the justice of our God, verse 19, Oh, the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel. And finally, in 20, verse 20, Oh, how great the holiness of our God.
Now, uh, Tammy, the Holy Ghost has taught me I need to be more like Jacob. I need to express more often, uh, in public and in my mind and in my prayers, thank you. Thank you for your mercy, your grace, your goodness, and the plan of salvation and your justice. Thank you. And I'm reminded of something that President Russell M.
Nelson said in December of 2023, uh, in the Christmas program. He said, brothers and sisters, let us live in the spirit of hallelujah. Ever praising the Lord God Jehovah and hallelujah is a Hebrew term, as you know, and it means praise Jehovah. Praise the Lord. So the Spirit has taught me, Don, you need to be more like Jacob and you need to be more expressive in thanking Heavenly Father for all of his blessings.
[00:05:56] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay, Don, as you were teaching this, I have this question for you then, because I immediately wrote this. I wrote my own expression of O. Okay. And I wanna know, I wanna know what yours would be. Mine was, oh, the brilliance of our God. Who knows more than I do. Oh, I love it. Love it. That's immediately what came to mind, because I think I know what's good for me, but God knows way better than I know.
What's, what would your exclamation be?
[00:06:18] Don Parry: Uh, it would include the word, mercy and grace. Oh, the. amazing mercy and, uh, bountiful grace of our God, something like that. Because he has, he's been merciful to me throughout my life. And sometimes I have not recognized it. Other times I have, uh, he's saved my life physically.
He's, he's, uh, supported me in my trials and so on. So, but I love your, Your interjection starting with, Oh, what a great exclamation. Thanks for sharing that.
[00:06:57] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Well, thank you for sharing yours and for teaching us those. That is such a cool idea of this idea of exclamation throughout second Nephi nine. I saw those, but I had no idea if it meant anything when the way you taught it, it is so significant to me now.
Uh, an O exclamation. Wow. That was cool. Thank you, Don, for sharing that. Okay. So here's what we're going to do is in the next segment, we are going to just dive in then to Jacob's words in second Nephi chapter six and what he wants us to know from the words of Isaiah.
Segment 2
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[00:07:37] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Let's go to second Nephi chapter six, verse one, and put a square around. Jacob's name. That is who's going to be teaching us. And we like to do that. We like to put a square around the names of people. So it's specific for us. Jacob's going to teach us. And I really like verse four, because here is what his goal is.
And we said this at the very, very beginning, but we're just going to go ahead and read verse four. And Don, can you read that for us, please?
[00:08:02] Don Parry: Absolutely. And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come. Wherefore I will read you the words of Isaiah, and they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you.
And I speak unto you for your sakes that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God.
[00:08:28] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you, Don. I was struck with verse four when it says concerning things which are and which are to come. I feel like that's speaking to me and our day. So he's going to tell us things that which are there and which will be coming.
And then he says, I speak unto you the words of Isaiah for our sake. So it is for our benefit. But then right here that you may learn and glorify. God. We get to learn his name and glorify him, and he's using Isaiah to do that. And so my question is, I was reading all these chapters is, but why these specific chapters of Isaiah?
There's so many that he could have chosen. I think what was interesting is that Nephi instructed Jacob, like these are the words we want them to know. So he had a little role to play in these specific Isaiah chapters. Right. Out of the gates. I think the ones that are so kind of odd or confusing, and we purposefully skip these in first Nephi 21 cause I knew you were coming on and I thought, okay, we're going to have Don teach us.
So let's go to second Nephi chapter six and we're going to bracket off versus six and seven. And if you'd like to cross reference where else these are found, you can read this in first Nephi chapter 21. Verses 22 through 23. They're also found in 2nd Nephi chapter 10 verse 9. And also you'll read this in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 22.
So Don, teach us the significance of verses 6 and 7 and why we, what we need to know about these. And why is it repeated twice in the Book of Mormon?
[00:09:58] Don Parry: Oh, let me first read these two verses. Great. And now these are the words. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms.
Thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and King shall be their thy nursing fathers and their queens. Thy nursing mothers, they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth and look up, lick up the dust of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
I want to give you, uh, a one different word translation from the Hebrew since you love Hebrew and I do too. In verse 7 when it says, And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens, in the Hebrew it says, and their princesses. Very interesting. Very interesting, different reading, princesses, and that denotes to me, not only the kings, but then the next generation, and including the females.
I just love that, I love it. Now, uh, there's a lot here to unpack. And what does it all mean? I think we need to give it, uh, give it some, let's go way back in the chapter. This is from Isaiah 49, if that's okay. Yes, absolutely. Go way back, and we're going to go find the subject. And if we go to verse 14, Isaiah 49, 14.
And the King James says, but Zion said, so here we're talking about Zion and the Lord's going to respond to Zion. So when it talks about kings will be thy nursing fathers, we're talking about Zion, thy Zion, your nursing fathers, the kings will be your Zions. And if you go back to verse 14, what it said, Zion said, there's actually a wonderful dialogue between Zion and the Lord Jehovah.
So in verse 14, it says, but Zion said, the Lord, and Lord in caps in the King James is Jehovah in Hebrew. The Lord has forsaken me, this is Zion, and my Lord hath forgotten me. And then the Lord responds like this. This is a dialogue. Can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
The Lord's still speaking. Yea, they may forget, the women. Yet, I will not forget thee. Now, this is a teaching, uh, figure of speech. It's very important when the Lord says, can a woman forget her second child if a woman is nursing and, uh, there are lots of things going on where she would never forget her baby who's nursing.
One is the baby will cry out and make noise. Um, um, but, um, the Lord is comparing this, this nursing child Uh, They may forget, but I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste, thy destroyers, and they that make thee waste shall go forth of thee, or shall leave thee.
So I'm not going to read the whole thing, but when we get to this part about, um, kings and princesses, it's saying that that important people, maybe literally kings and queens and princesses, maybe not, but Zion will have a lot of help, so much help that it'll be as if kings will nurse them and, and princesses or queens will nurse them and they'll bow down to thee, which is the opposite of historical reality, where most people bow down to kings and queens.
So, so the essence is This is about Zion. A lot of, uh, Latter day Saint, um, teachers and instructors say that Zion is, um, uh, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
[00:14:45] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Tell me your take on the end when it says, For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
[00:14:51] Don Parry: Okay, the word for wait here is, uh, it could also be hope.
So it's, uh, in the Hebrew lexicon, it's either they'll wait for me or the hope for me. Either way, if we're patient, remember, we have to look at the whole context and we're taking things out of context just because of the time frame. And we simply don't have time to do a thorough study of the passage here.
[00:15:19] Tammy Uzelac Hall: But because Don said at the very beginning, he said, we have 6 hours or 8 hours of material that we have to cram into this 2 hour block. And he's right. Absolutely. Right. So I'm glad you said that we don't have enough time, but keep going.
[00:15:34] Don Parry: So, if we think that. Remember up above, um, in verse 14, Zion, and a lot of us refer to her, Zion is a woman in the Scriptures.
Yes. Uh, Zion is a female, and the Lord is her husband. And uh, Zion is saying, the Lord hath forsaken me. Lord hath forgotten me. Well, uh, back to your question about, um, waiting. Sometimes we want the Lord to, um, defend Zion now and, and get rid of the enemies and the wickedness in the world and all the evil, but we have to be patient and wait for the Lord and, and continue to have hope.
And in the end, we'll be blessed for it and we'll never be ashamed because we'll see the greatness of God.
[00:16:29] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I just had a word pop into my mind. I might be wrong with this. So Don, help me out where it says, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. And you said that word is hope. Is that the word Tikvah?
[00:16:39] Don Parry: Oh yeah. It's actually from the same root. Absolutely. Oh, it is. I am just really pleased. Yes. It's from the very same root. Okay.
[00:16:48] Tammy Uzelac Hall: That's really cool because that word means rope and, and it connects to the word rope. Is that correct? I think I studied that somewhere with red cap.
[00:16:58] Don Parry: This might be too much information, but, but the, when you said Tikvah, the root letters of this verb is, uh, kof, vav, he.
Now that's the same root as Tikvah. Uh, yes.
[00:17:14] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. Because I think when I was studying this with the story of Rahab, how she, she put the rope out so that when the spies came back, they'd know which house to save. And there was this beautiful connection to her being at the end of her rope. Like this was her only hope for her family to be saved.
And I think sometimes many of us feel like we're at the end of our ropes when it comes to our faith. And I tie this to this verse for they shall not be ashamed that Wait for me that those of us who are at the end of our rope, and we're just hoping and praying for the goodness of God to save us. And like you said, we want it to happen right now.
We want Zion to be spared. And the Lord's foretelling right here, like you're going to have to wait, but keep hoping Hang on, it's gonna be okay. And there's so much hope in that verse right there for me, so, oh, I like the way you taught that. Beautiful.
[00:18:06] Don Parry: Thank you. And the, the word for hope, uh, it's, uh, there's a special term for, for such a word that has two meanings, but they're both appropriate.
And Isaiah was famous for that. He'd use a single word that has two meanings and both meanings apply.
[00:18:26] Tammy Uzelac Hall: So awesome. Okay. Well, oh my gosh, that was just two verses and you're right. We could talk for hours about this, but we don't have time. So we're going to jump into more of Isaiah's words. Now, here's what Jacob does.
If you want to bracket off verses eight, all the way through the end of the chapter to 18, Jacob will give us a very quick commentary or summary on the world history all the way from his time until the end of time. And then in second Nephi chapter seven, he begins quoting Isaiah 50. And so we're going to get into that in the next segment.
Segment 3
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[00:19:08] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Let's turn to second Nephi chapter seven, verse one, and please underline in a very bright color. The two times that Isaiah says this, thus sayeth the Lord. Now, Don, in your newest book, search diligently, the words of Isaiah. You write that Isaiah is a sacred book of scripture and that Jehovah, the Lord of the old Testament is the source of Isaiah's revelations.
And right here we have that proof, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. So the Lord is speaking to us in these chapters. And so I wanted to know, first of all, Don, why is he, why is Jacob? Siding, Isaiah 50 and 51. And then I want us to dive into just versus one through three, because they're so confusing.
You immediately go to like divorced parents and it's all bad. And so I'm excited for you to teach us about these verses. So first of all, why Isaiah 50, 51, and then let's get into divorcement.
[00:20:02] Don Parry: So, uh, why Isaiah 50 and 51, and he also cites, uh, chapter 52, verses 1 and 2 as a big block. And there are two reasons.
If you look carefully at the text and study, uh, um, reason one is, Uh, because these passages deal with the house of Israel. So after he cites this, these passages from Isaiah, if everyone would turn to 2 Nephi chapter 9 verse 1, and then Jacob explains. So after he cites them, he says this, verse 1 chapter 9, And now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things, these passages from Isaiah, that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord.
That he has covenanted with the house of Israel. By the way, that's a little Hebraism. Covenants that he covenanted. In English, we'd say covenants, covenants that he made, but Hebrew will repeat the actual, uh, the word, covenants that he covenanted. So Jacob's, uh, cites passages from Isaiah because they deal directly with house of Israel.
So if we go back and look at all of those, um, all those verses, it's a house of Israel passage. Now, I want to remind everyone that the title page of the Book of Mormon says this. I'm just going to give a little quote from the title page. They don't need to turn to it, which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers, and that they may know the covenants that they are not cast off forever.
So I, uh, Jacob is actually fulfilling part of the title page. So, he's talking about the house of Israel and the covenants. Now, reason number two is equally important and equally powerful. Why did he cite these passages? Because they are Jesus Christ. Focused, all of Isaiah's, Jesus Christ focused. And that's one, been one of the missions of my life is to teach, um, various audiences that Isaiah speaks of Jesus.
Uh, and I'd like to give three or four examples very quickly. Please do. Uh, Isaiah uh, uh, uses the Hebrew form of Jehovah 450 times. 450. So he is, he cites the name Jehovah. And our last three prophets have all said that Jehovah is Jesus Christ. Other prophets have too, but the fact that the last three prophets have said Jehovah is Jesus Christ is truly significant.
Isaiah, in other ways, makes it clear that Jehovah is Jesus Christ. For example, Isaiah several times says that Jehovah is our Redeemer, and yet we think, what? I thought Jesus was our Redeemer. Well, Jehovah and Jesus are the same, and Isaiah also attests that Jehovah is our Savior. So I'm going to just quote one of many passages right now.
Isaiah 49 verse 26. It would take too long to get to it. I'm just going to cite it. All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, and Lord, here's Jehovah, that I, Jehovah, I am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, so that there are a lot of evidences. We all know that there are a lot of prophecies of Jesus Christ, the Messiah Jesus Christ in Isaiah, one of which is Isaiah 53, a very famous passage, and, and I, uh, I'm going to turn, there are other, other evidences that Isaiah is Jesus Christ focused, but I want to emphasize that.
That, uh, groups and commureligious faiths that do not believe in Jesus Christ will have a different approach and a different understanding. So clearly this is a Christian understanding, not just Latter day Saint, but Catholic and Protestant, that Isaiah speaks of Jesus Christ so much. But let's return to the title page of the Book of Mormon, and I'm gonna cite another little passage.
So one is, what's the Book of Mormon about? It's about Israel. And then back to the title page, and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. So the Book of Mormon does that. He's the eternal God manifesting himself unto all nations. Now later on, I won't get into it now, but later on we're going to, I understand we're going to talk about some of the divine titles.
And we'll look at that later. I want to pause for a second and testify to our listeners that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and it is Jesus Christ focused.
[00:25:21] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I'd like to just second your witness of that. I think that's important for us to do when someone witnesses of that, and I too absolutely believe that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.
No doubt in my mind and having learned Hebrew has just strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon Which we'll get to in a segment.
[00:25:41] Don Parry: Me too. I agree. Thank you. I fully agree
[00:25:44] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Wow. And as we witnessed of the Book of Mormon, you just feel the truthfulness of that. That's something the Holy Ghost just taught me right now.
That's so cool. Thank you, Don. Okay. So take us to verses one through three, because these are so, to my students, when I taught seminary, they were so bizarre because they just see the word divorcement and it's such a dark word to people or to kids or whatever. And so what is, what is the Lord teaching us and really saying in these three verses?
[00:26:13] Don Parry: But if we remember a couple of things, Jehovah is the husband, Zion, or Israel, is the wife. And Jehovah has been faithful forever. He's faithful. fully and 100 percent faithful, but Israel has not always been faithful as the wife. So these are symbols, and if we know that they're symbols, it'll help us to understand.
So, the Lord, through Isaiah, is using very powerful images of a husband and wife. And so if we look at that, uh, in Isaiah 50 verses 1 to 3, the Lord introduces the image of a marriage between God and Israel or God and Zion. And, uh, and Zion being the bride and, uh, the Lord being the bridegroom. And this is explicit in Isaiah chapter 62, verses four and five, where it talks about the Lord being a husband, but here you can still see it and understand it.
The Lord speaks of a practice of a husband putting away his wife by, uh, uh, giving her a legal bill of divorcement. Now, that's a little complex, but that's how they would conduct a divorce anciently. The Law of Moses required that a husband give his wife a bill or a certificate or a document on, on, on whatever, they didn't have papers, so I don't know if it's on leather or papyrus or something, for a divorce to be valid.
Now, this, this idea comes from Deuteronomy chapter 24, verses 1 4. But, uh, there's no such bill in this case in Isaiah 50. That means the Lord is continuing to be patient with his bride, with Israel. He still loves her. He's still going to work with her. He's going to call prophets, and the prophets are going to teach and work with Israel.
[00:28:17] Tammy Uzelac Hall: So let me ask you this real quick. Yeah. So it says for that, say it, the Lord. So the Lord speaking to us. And when he says, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? Is that the Lord's way of saying, prove like, where is, where's the divorce papers? Cause I didn't issue them. So go ahead and show me if you've got them.
Great. But I've never issued divorce papers. So it's not saying, where's the bill of your mother's divorcement? Like a mother's divorcing a child. Yes. It's asking like, where's your, Hey, children of Israel. Where's your mother's divorcement from me because it doesn't exist?
[00:28:49] Don Parry: Yeah, well said. Okay, very well said Tammy.
Thank you Thanks for that clarification when it asked that question in Isaiah uses Dozens of questions as teaching tools. Yes in in In the whole book. So where he says, where's the bill of your mother's divorcement and the answer is It doesn't exist. I did not do it like the law Moses would have me do it because I didn't want to divorce.
I still love you. I still want to work with you. And I want this marriage to work out. Now I'm paraphrasing. I hope everyone knows that.
[00:29:24] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes, but that makes a lot of sense when it comes to our relationship with Jehovah. And I even like how he says, look, where, to whom did I put the away or to which of my creditors have I sold you?
Like, I'd like to know, cause I didn't sell you to anybody, even though you probably owe me a lot. I think he could be saying that, like, yeah, I, I'm still letting you work it out.
[00:29:49] Don Parry: Yes. So, so the second part of that is where he says, he's talking about creditors and I have I sold you because anciently, uh, a credit.
Predator could take a debtor's children to sell them into slavery to pay the debt. That's just super strange in our culture, and I want to, I always remind my students, avoid presentism. Avoid, uh, inserting or overlapping our present understanding of culture upon the Old Testament, because it's so different.
But if you think of someone knocking on an ancient biblical door and saying, I'm taking your children because you haven't paid the debt, that would have been legal. But the Lord is saying, have I sold you? No way. I have not sold you. I never sell you. And then in the last part of verse 50, verse one, he says this, behold, for your iniquities, you have sold yourselves.
And for your transgressions, as your, uh, mother put away. So he's saying it's, um, I did not separate myself from you. You separated yourself from me because of your sins and your transgressions. That's awesome. But what, what else? There's so much here. I do want to say that, uh, Isaiah 50 verses 2 and 3 are repeated more or less or with changes in Doctrine and Covenants section 133.
Verses 66 through 69, which puts this passage in the context of the Second Coming. Mm hmm. Talking about, uh, an approach to Isaiah. And I think later on, we're going to talk about different ways to, to read Isaiah, including likening. So, but, but the essence here is God is faithful, and I testify that he is.
He's a faithful husband. And we as Zion or Israel, ancient or modern in any time period, we need to be faithful to God, keep his commandments. and love him, uh, to the best of our ability and to honor his covenants.
[00:32:08] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Wow. Beautifully said Don. And in my mind, I'm still just reeling with this idea because every one of us needs to be reminded for thus sayeth the Lord, I haven't divorced you.
I haven't divorced anyone. Like there is still hope going back to that idea. Those of us who wait on the Lord, those of us who hope like he's saying right here, there's so much hope. I, and I like how you said this divorce doesn't exist because The Lord saying, I still love you. That is beautiful. I love how we get to just learn that that's what the Lord is saying to us.
So thank you for taking us through those verses that can oftentimes seem bizarre or weird, and now they've never been more clear to me ever. So that's beautiful. Thank you.
[00:32:52] Don Parry: One comment on verse three. Yes. Um, notice he's, uh, first of all, notice that there's, uh, a change in the Joseph Smith translation of 2 Nephi, uh, 7, verse 2, he's talking to the house of Israel.
So that's not in Isaiah, the Bible, but that is. So in verse 2, I'm sorry, verse 3, it starts out, Oh, house of Israel. So that's how we know he's talking to Israel, but he says, Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or that I have power to deliver? And then he he's going to cite his powers. Behold, at my rebuke, I drive the sea.
God has power over the oceans of the earth, because He's the Creator. I make the rivers of wilderness, and so on. Uh, what He's saying is, I have power to redeem you. I am God. I have all power. I have power over the elements of the earth. So, and yes, I can redeem you. Please let me redeem you. So, that's the verse 3.
[00:34:01] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Thank you, Don. My gosh, that was neat. Okay. So there we have those verses. And in the next segment, I'm looking forward to telling you what the Holy ghost taught me. And then to have Don continue to teach us about some really important words that we find in second Nephi chapter eight. So we're going to do that next.
Segment 4
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[00:34:27] Tammy Uzelac Hall: So here is what the Holy Ghost taught me as I was studying these verses, and I can't believe how many times I've read them, but this struck me in second Nephi chapter eight verses one through three. So I'm just going to kind of go through these verses and highlight some of the words that stood out to me and how it all connected for me.
So we have it starting out with the word hearken. And one of the things that we've learned that our prophet taught us when it comes to the word hearken is this means listening with the intent to obey in Hebrew. That's the meaning of the word Harkin. And I appreciate how our prophet said the first word in Doctrine and Covenants is Harkin.
So listen with the intent to obey. He says, Harkin unto me ye. So I'm hoping that counts me because ye that follow after righteousness and I'm trying, Oh boy, am I trying? And it's super hard sometimes, but to those of us who are going to try and follow after righteousness, look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn and the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.
And I read that and I'm like, What in the world? Cause I've always known rock to mean redeemer or another word for our savior. But in this context, it's actually saying, look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, or in other words, the place that you come from, or your foundation that you've been chiseled away from the generations of people that came before you.
So look unto the rock from whence The whole of the pit from whence you are digged. And then he says, look unto Abraham, your father and unto Sarah. And I stopped there for a minute because I love their story because their story is hard. Their lives were difficult. The Lord promised them so many wonderful things and they would not see that fulfilled until they're well into their nineties, a hundred years old.
That's a long time to wait or have hope. But to wait upon the Lord. And so I had to think about this before you can go on in these verses, I really want us to just sit and sit with that. The idea that Abraham and Sarah had a really hard time. And then it says, she that bear you for, I called him alone and blessed him.
And this idea that he blessed him in my study of Abraham and Sarah, it almost feels like they didn't see the blessing well until after Genesis 17. And in Genesis 17, to me, this is. It's like the calling out Abraham of all verses where the Lord says, walk and be perfect. Walk before me and be perfect. And that word perfect always kind of hits you hard, like, Oh, I mean, here's Abraham.
He's struggling. He's trying to keep us. He's trying to keep the commandments and stay true to the Lord and the Lord's like, I need you to be perfect. But then I looked at that word a little deeper in Hebrew. And the word in Hebrew is Tamim, which means complete. Or full done, but I like the root word for Tommy, which is Tom.
And that word means integrity. And I almost wondered if this was the Lord's way of saying, look, Abraham, I just need to know he's, he's talking about his integrity. Are you in or you out? Because if you're in, I'm going to promise you the most amazing blessings. It's Abrahamic covenant happens in Genesis 17.
And he's saying, I just need to know. Are you in? Are you out? Now, if you're in, I can promise you wonderful things. If you're out, I still love you. I just need you to choose right now. This is a moment of integrity. What are you going to do? And Abraham chooses the Lord. He's like, I'm in, I'm all in. And then immediately the Lord changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sir, I get Sarah.
And this is where they enter into the Abrahamic covenant with the Lord. This is where they're blessed. And then we have verse three for the Lord shall comfort Zion, just like he comforted Abraham and Sarah, he will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert, like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness shall be found there in Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
I. I think that is so amazing, but giving the context of Abraham and Sarah and what he did for their wilderness, what he did for their desert, and boy, there was joy and gladness to be found therein. In fact, I love the idea that they named their son Isaac and Isaac means to rejoice in Hebrew. And they did.
There was joy and gladness finally found at the age of 100. And many of us are like, I don't want to wait that long. I can, I have it sooner. And so I think the reason for these three verses from Isaiah is just to put into context for all of us. Like he gets it. It is hard, but he can promise us wonderful things.
And in my own life, He gets it for me, and he is going to turn my wilderness into Eden and my desert, like the garden of the Lord. But I just, in pink, because that's my favorite color, I highlighted joy and gladness. I love this idea, the voice of melody. Wow, that is beautiful to me because I imagine a song and my girls have been learning to sing recently and they were performing in sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago.
And as my daughter was preparing and practicing with my other daughter who's playing the guitar, I have this, I don't even, I don't think I have like perfect pitch. But I can tell when something's a little bit off cause it kind of grates and I just feel it like, Oh, she's a little sharper, a little flat, but when it hits the right note and it is just a perfect melody, I heard her sing that and it was just this beautiful moment.
Like she had practiced so hard for it and she hit the right notes and it was just this beautiful voice of melody. Everything came fulfilled for all of her hard work. And that is what I learned from these three verses. It'll be worth it. It's going to be okay. And the blessings that the Lord will give us will make that, that waiting time fully worth everything we're going through.
So that's what the Holy Ghost taught me. Did I get anything wrong?
[00:40:24] Don Parry: Oh, it was so, so perfect. I am so thankful you said all those things. I, and I took, uh, took some notes. I loved it when you said in my own life, he gets it for me. Yeah, so you're likening the scriptures and I just love it. He gets it from me.
That's a testimony from you and a, an amazing statement. Uh, and I thank you for that. Uh, when you talked about the word Tom and to mom, uh, just as a side note, yes, please, uh, the word, uh, everyone's, many people have heard of the rum and thumb. Yes. Urim and Thummim. And Thummim is from that same root. So Urim means lights and Thummim means perfections or completenesses or something.
So oh, that was so powerful. Thank you so much.
[00:41:18] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, wow. Well, I think the Holy Ghost, but it came by way of just digging into these verses. And again, using your commentary, which I love, understanding Isaiah, it really helped me. And so all week I just kept thinking about that. Like he gets it for me. It is. I just really, really like second Nephi chapter eight or Isaiah chapter 51, very powerful and how we can liken them.
In fact, I'm grateful you brought up that word because Jacob will actually cite the same words as Nephi back in second Nephi chapter six. He says that he wants us to liken these words of Isaiah unto ourselves. So if you want to mark that in second Nephi chapter six, verse five, We need to liken these words unto ourselves, the words of Isaiah.
So let's jump into some, let's liken some words unto us because in second Nephi chapter eight, there's a word that's repeated often and it's the word awake. And so I asked Don to teach us about this awake, awake, and it says it twice in verse six, verse 17 and verse 24. So Don, let's have some fun with this.
Teach me about these verses.
[00:42:20] Don Parry: Oh, this is so fun. And, and, and he's, um, He's signing Isaiah. Let's look at these three, three passages that repeat awake, awake. First of all, they say it twice for emphasis, and that's a figure of speech, a very important figure of speech, awake, awake. So go to, uh, 2 Nephi 8, verse 9.
the first time he says it, awake, awake. So here's a little note. It may be too much Hebrew, but in Hebrew these imperatives, awake, awake, are feminine singular, so they're commanding something that's feminine. It's not to a boy, it's to something that's feminine, and so it says, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.
So what's being commanded to awake? It's the arm of the Lord. Arm is feminine in Hebrew. In fact, most body parts are so, uh, here the command is for the arm of the Lord to awake. And then it says, awake, as in ancient days in the generations of old. And what they're saying is, uh, you were, uh, uh, you performed all these miracles and amazing, uh, deeds.
Anciently, please do that again. Now in our generation. So, that's number one. Number two, uh, chapter eight, verse seventeen, if you go to that, that's also from Hebrew. It says, Awake, awake. Again, these are feminine singular imperatives, so they're speaking to something that's feminine. But I want you to know that in the Hebrew, these are a different form, uh, and they're a reflexive verb.
So, awake yourself, as in rouse yourself. So, uh, the English is the same, but the Hebrew, it's a little different. So what is feminine in this verse? So awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is feminine. The city's feminine. So here it's commanding Jerusalem to wake up, uh, basically wake up and be spiritual.
Now, of course, we're talking about a city, but here we're speaking of the inhabitants of the city. So that's number two, commanding Jerusalem to wake up and be spiritual because you have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury, but no more. Let's not do that anymore. Go now to chapter 8 verse 24.
We're still in Isaiah. And it says, Awake, awake, yet again, there are feminine forms in the Hebrew, so we have to look for, to see who they're speaking to. Who's the subject? Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Zion's the subject. Zion is feminine. And so that all fits the grammar of Hebrew, and it fits beautifully, and also Jerusalem is feminine, as we mentioned before.
So I'm going to read this, Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth thou shalt no more come unto thee the uncircumcised. Now here it's a symbol and the unclean and unclean means spiritually unclean. It's not speaking of I've been working in the garden and I need to wash up shake thyself from the dust arise and sit down O Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy neck O captive daughter of Zion So when it has all these imperatives awake awake for emphasis shake loose they're all Uh, feminine forms.
And should we look at the meaning in Isaiah, uh, or section 113?
[00:46:32] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes, please. No, I wanted you to do that because it says put on thy strength in verse nine and put on thy strength in verse 24. Teach us what that means.
[00:46:42] Don Parry: Okay. So I, uh, the prophet Joseph Smith, I'm astounded at his, his power, his seership. I'm astounded at what he brought forth.
So, if you turn to section 113 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 7, questions by Elias Higby, what is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52nd chapter, first verse, And that's what's being quoted in, uh, 2 Nephi 8, 24. So what does it mean? Which saith, Put on thy strength, O Zion. And what people had Isaiah reference to, verse 8 is the answer.
He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of priesthood, to bring again Zion. And the redemption of Israel and to put on her strength, say, her, to put on her strength, Zion, is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage also to return to that power which she had lost.
So, and, and the authority of the priesthood, as you know, pertains to sisters and brothers. We get that from the words of three of our latter day prophets in the past five or six years.
[00:48:16] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes. Oh, I'm grateful that you went back to those verses with the idea of strength because Put on strength, put on priesthood power.
It's not the same as being ordained to an office in the priesthood. That's separate. I mean, that is part of this, but when we include women in this picture, Oh, I, I just think it's incredible that, and we know from our leaders that the moment we, we renew our covenants or when we walk into the temple, we are given priesthood power, we are given strength.
And so that is. Really, really cool. In fact, can I just read this quote from Sherry do? Because here's what she says about priesthood power. What does it mean to have access to priesthood power? It means that we can receive revelation, be blessed and aided by the ministering of angels. Learn to part the veil that separates us from our heavenly father.
Be strengthened to resist temptation, be protected and be enlightened and made smarter than we are. All without any mortal intermediary. And she said that in the book, Women and the Priesthood, what one Mormon woman believes. And I just thought, especially the part smarter than we already are, because I need that help so much.
And I'd never considered that priesthood power does all of those things for all of us, women included. And so. When it says awake, awake, put on priesthood power, I'm just imagining awake, awake. When you go to the temple, wake up and notice everything in there and the wording and how it empowers you, women and men.
And so I think this is the, and especially I'm grateful that you connected it to the female because it does have to match the Zionist female awake as female. I think that's really cool. It's. It is very Hebrew, which I think is neat that women, cause sometimes we say, well, why are women compared to the whore or all the bad things in scripture, but they're also compared to all the good things in scripture.
Um, cause God loves his women, right?
[00:50:23] Don Parry: Absolutely. Positively. And I loved it when you said when we include women, Oh, you use that exclamation. Oh, I think it's powerful. I just love that. The way you said that there's another, Oh, exclamation.
[00:50:37] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, I think it's so cool. And again, here is Isaiah wanting us to know this.
Nephi tells Jacob to include this. Jacob wants us to know this. And again, it goes all the way back to how we started so that we can learn and glorify the name of our God. Yes. Yes. And if priesthood doesn't do that, I don't know what does. That's right. So awesome. Anything else you have in second Nephi eight.
[00:51:06] Don Parry: I'm just thankful for the Hebrew that makes, makes Isaiah more readable in the English. We'd say awake, whether it's to a boy or girl or plural or singular, but in the Hebrew they have four forms. So you know exactly, Oh, that they're commanding a female now or in another, another setting, they're commanding males or something.
So it just really helps to, uh, helps me personally to understand Isaiah better.
[00:51:35] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Amen. That was fun. Thank you, Don. Okay. Here we go. I am so excited because this is going to be, I've been looking so forward to the next discussion that we're going to have. So we are going to move on to second Nephi chapter nine and we introduced this idea clear back at the very beginning of Hebrew isms in our second episode.
And I just couldn't think who better to teach us about Hebrew isms in the book of Mormon than the man who wrote a book about it. And so we're going to jump into some cool Hebrew isms in the next segment.
Segment 5
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[00:52:04] Tammy Uzelac Hall: All right, Don, I have so many questions for you and I sent these ahead of time so you can answer them. So a few years ago I bought your book preserved in translation, Hebrew and other ancient literary forms in the book of Mormon. That's your title. I poured over that book and for two weeks I just sat at my scriptures chapter by chapter and marked everything that you wrote in that book and I marked it in my book of Mormon and you did.
Thank you. You're very careful to say this is not a total full conclusive record. It's just the beginning of a wonderful approach to the Book of Mormon. And what I think has been so cool for me is I learned them from your book. And now as I've been going through and reading the Book of Mormon, I'm finding them.
I have a marked, but I'm also finding new ones like, Oh, here's another example of a woe Oracle or, um, the. The construct state. When we talked about, you know, the iron rod or the rod of iron, I just think it's so cool. Episode three, we talked about dream to dream, and you taught us a new one today. Covenant of covenanted.
That was so awesome. So here's my question before we even get into Hebraism in 2 Nephi 9, because there's quite a few in this chapter. I just want to know, why did you write this book and why do Hebraisms matter?
[00:53:24] Don Parry: First of all, as a full-time professor of the Hebrew Bible here at BYU, I'm keenly aware of hems hebrewic words, Hebrew like structures.
Because I teach the Hebrew, I teach the Old Testament in the Hebrew, I also teach the Deads Sea Scrolls, which constitute, uh, 900 scrolls in, uh, most of them in Hebrew all. Although I, I will quickly add that most of the 900 scrolls are. Uh, now exists only in fragments. When I read the Book of Mormon, I see Hebrew throughout it.
So, uh, I have gathered, uh, collected with the work of others, uh, I've noted the work of others, there are 30 different categories of Hebraisms, or Hebrew like structures, in the Book of Mormon30 categories, and some of those categories, um, Uh, are numbered in, in the hundreds. For example, one category is chiasmus, and I'm going to give a couple of examples of Chiasmus in a minute.
Uh, I'm aware of 300 examples in the Book of Mormon. Wow. About a hundred of those. I ha I found myself in the early 1990s and I identified them. So, but why? Why am I interested? Because these Hebraisms show the antiquity of the Book of Mormon. It shows that the Book of Mormon came out of the ancient world of the Bible, out of Hebrew speakers in Jerusalem, and it follows similar patterns of the Hebrew Bible.
Now, just as a side note, some of the changes made from the first edition of the Book of Mormon to the second or third edition, um, where the English was awkward and it sounded, wow, that sounds awkward. That doesn't sound like very good English. What it was is a literal translation of a Hebraism. And so it came out in English a little awkward.
But when you read the Hebrew, you say, that's perfect Hebrew, even though it's rendered in English. It's just a lot of fun. So those are some of the reasons.
[00:55:43] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. Let's do this. We have a quote from President Russell M. Nelson to support the need for Hebraisms. This is taken from a BYU devotional on September 7th, 1997, and here's what he had to say about this.
So fascinating. Don, will you read that quote?
[00:56:00] Don Parry: Yes, Isaiah described the spirit of the Book of Mormon as familiar. It resonates with people who know the Old Testament, especially those who are conversant with its Hebrew language. The Book of Mormon is rich with Hebraisms, traditions, symbolisms. Idioms and literary forms.
It is familiar because more than 80 percent of its pages came from Old Testament times, end of quote. Thank you. Okay. Do I quote that in my book? You do. Yeah. I thought I did. I thought this sounds very familiar. So I'm glad. I'm glad that I did not miss a quote by our prophet who is so beloved.
[00:56:48] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Of course you didn't.
Yes. So then I went and read the talk and it is so good. Such a great talk. So let's do this. Let's dive into some Hebraisms, Don. Take it away. Guide us through 2 Nephi chapter nine. This is so cool. Let's go.
[00:57:02] Don Parry: Okay, I'm going to, if we have time, I have four or five categories to talk about out of the 30 categories, but just little samples.
So if everyone will turn to 2 Nephi 9, verse 20, and I'll give everyone a minute. I'm going to explain chiasmus, 2 Nephi 9, 20. And, and chiasmus is a mirrored. A mirrored parallelism. So it states something, states something else, and then it goes backwards. Here's an example. Okay. For he knoweth, speaking of God, he knoweth all things, and there's not anything.
Say if he knoweth knows it. So what it does, if you look at it, sometimes we put chiasmus, we, we use the, the letters A, B, C, D, and then we'll go backwards. DCBA or A B, BA and chiasmus is, can be long, they can be two or three pages long, or five or 10 words. So for he knoweth and save, he knows it. Those, those are mirrors.
Those are mirrored expressions. And then all things, and there's not anything. So I don't know, uh, without having a visual, did that make sense? I want to show two or three more.
[00:58:24] Tammy Uzelac Hall: So would that be an A, B, B, A? Yes. Yes. For he knoweth. That's A. Is A. All things is B. Yes. Not anything is B. Yes. Say he knows it is A.
Yes. And this is throughout the Old Testament, you're going to see chiasmus. Yes. Oh, that's neat. Okay, go ahead. Do another one.
[00:58:46] Don Parry: Uh, uh, chiasmus is, is an Old Testament, uh, figure or poetic expression and, and there are hundreds in the Old Testament, hundreds. At one time I went through Isaiah over a period of weeks or months and I found about 120 examples of chiasmus in Isaiah.
So it's possible the Nephites, while they were studying the Hebrew record of Isaiah, Found out the idea of chiasmus and included in the book. That's just, I can't prove that. Yeah, that's just a possibility. But we do know there are 300 plus examples of Chiasmus in the, in the Book of Mormon. Some of them are very long.
Uh, I'm gonna give one or two more short ones second. Nephi 9 38 ed, and fine wo into all those who die in their sins. Now, we're going to come back to their sins in a second. For they shall return to God. and behold his face and remain in their sins. So this is an A, B, B, A structure. Their sins, A, B, return to God, B, behold his face, A, remain in their sins.
Oh, cool. Now, I'm going to do one more. Although I have 300. I have 300 to do. And I'm going to do one more. This is a little longer. It's 2nd Nephi 9 28. And as a deacon up in Melba, Idaho, I memorized this as, uh, as part of my goal to earn my duty to God. I earned so many memorized so many verses and I, I did earn my duty to God.
But when I'd have, have a new passage, I, I would, uh, pass them off to the bishop. And sometimes he'd stand in the foyer versus, you know, right before sacrament. I was just a little guy, and I said, Bishop, I have another verse to, to, that I memorized. He said, what is it? And he'd take the little card, and this is one of them.
But I didn't know it was chiasmus at the time. It's 2 Nephi 9, 28. And it's A, B, C, C, B, A. And I'm just going to give you the main elements. So, A, B, CCBA. So the two A's are Foolishness and Foolishness. So at the beginning is Foolishness and the end is Foolishness. The two B's are, they think they're wise, and supposing they know.
And the two C's are, they hearken not. They set it aside. So it's a chiasmus. I had no idea of that when I was 12 years old or 13, whatever I was, and here, here now I'm aware, but this is, uh, this is a very important Hebraism, and, and I ask people, okay, you write a 500 page book, and you include all these characters, and you, you have to include 12 or 13 Hebrew names that would be discovered Uh, in the, in the decades after you write it, like Alma, Alma, uh, and you have to include 300 chiasmus in your record.
[01:02:19] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Uh, so I couldn't even like, when you were going through this, I was like, what's a chiasmus I could say to my kids. What's an everyday . I couldn't even come up with one. Oh,
[01:02:27] Don Parry: I've got one. Oh, okay. Dickery dickery doc.
[01:02:31] Tammy Uzelac Hall: You're right. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, the mouse went down, Hickory Dickory Dock.
Oh my gosh, that's totally an A, B, C, B, A. Oh, chiasmus, a childhood one. That's cool, Don.
[01:02:46] Don Parry: Isn't that fun?
[01:02:47] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Yes. Okay. Very good. Chiasmus. All right. What else do we have in this chapter?
[01:02:54] Don Parry: Here's another category of Hebraisms, and that's the repetition of a theme word, a special important word to emphasize a topic.
And I'll give you one biblical example. It's found in Zephaniah chapter 1 verses 17 and 18. No one has to turn there, but in those two verses, the word day, as in day of the Lord, is used 14 times. Day found 14 times in two verses. Now here are three examples in the Book of Mormon. A famous one is in Helaman 5, the word remember is repeated 15 times in six verses.
See that's a key word, but it's repeated for us to really learn it. Remember. 15 times in six verses, Helaman five. The word joy occurs seven times in the book of Alma, verses, chapter 27, verses 17 and 8. Seven times joy in two verses. Now back to 2 Nephi 9. Chapters, uh, chapter 9 verses 31 through 36, we have the word woe.
Um, it introduces six verses. Woe, woe, woe. Now, we don't have to repeat those words. We could have said woe once. Uh, or the writer could just said, Whoa, and then, uh, mentioned, Whoa, to whom? And so on. But it's repeated to emphasize the topic. This is a very important Hebraic figure of speech in the Book of Mormon.
Now you're ready for the next category? Yes. Okay. The next one is the use of and now I teach my students that and is the is the most common word in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, and is found 52, 000 times in the Hebrew Bible. I'm astounded. And, uh, and is the number one word in the Book of Mormon. That's not a coincidence.
There's so many ands in the Book of Mormon that, uh, some people might have marked Joseph Smith down if it was a research paper. Too many ands. We don't use and that much, but it does have ands. And in 2 Nephi 9, if my count is correct, and occurs 141 times. in one chapter. I mean, that's astounding. And one of my sons served a mission, came home from his mission, and I, um, I had a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand, and he said, Dad, flip through the Book of Mormon anywhere, and what do the verses start with?
And I flipped, and I said, And. And I looked at another one. And. A lot of the verses start with And. He said, Dad. That is a Hebraism. And he didn't know that, or he'd forgotten that I teach Hebrew Bible at BYU. It was kind of cute. So he had this, this, um, this revelation and it's just a small thing, but it's a Hebraism.
Now do you want another category? I've got four or five more or should I stop?
[01:06:11] Tammy Uzelac Hall: No. Well, let's on the, on the and one. This is really cool because sometimes I teach this Hebraism because it's the one that really stood out to me when I read it. And in Helaman chapter three, verse 14, I think that's the verse for me that has the most ands in there.
It also has the word there, this repetition of these words. And I, the only reason that stood out to me was because I'm just wondering if in the translation process, Joseph and Sydney were like, Boy, that's a repetitive. Like, why wouldn't we just put a comma? Yes. There's some way else to write this. And I just think, again, it's a testament to Joseph saying, I just got to say it the way it's being translated.
I can't fix this. Yes. It would have been fixed. Like you said, anybody reading this as a paper would have gone. We're going to redline every one of those ands or theirs. And so for another reference, put Helaman chapter three, verse 14, and you'll find what Don's talking about this repetition of the word and or there or the, so yeah, I really, really liked that Hebraism.
Okay. Give us another category. Okay.
[01:07:12] Don Parry: Another category is antithetical parallelism. Now that's a big word, a parallelism that expresses opposites. A parallelism is normally a two lined. expression. Two lines. And notice this one, and there are a lot of these throughout the Book of Mormon. This one is in 2 Nephi 9, verse 39.
Remember, to be carnally minded is death, line one. And, here's the and again, to be spiritually minded is life eternal. So here, it's two lines, and, but they're opposites. So we have In line one partly minded. The opposite of that is in line two, spiritually minded. In line one, you have death. In line two, you have life.
It, it's opposites. This is a very powerful way of teaching. And just as a side note, there are 1,100 examples. Plus or minus of parallelisms in the book of Isaiah. At one point I went through and counted them all. Now the next category is similar, and it's a synonymous parallelism. Again, it's two lines long, and it has synonyms in it.
So if everyone would please turn to 2 Nephi 9. Verse 52. So, so we have two lines. Pray unto him continually by day. Line one. Now, I've, I've formatted them. I, I know they're not formatted that way in the Book of Mormon. And give thanks unto his holy name by night, line two. Now, how's this synonymous? What are the synonyms?
Pray is a synonym with give thanks. But when, when we, uh, when we pray, it should include thanks. It shouldn't be all asking for favors. Pray into Him, who's the Him, uh, what's in line two, it's His Holy Name. And then you do have the antonyms by day and by night, but that expresses always. Every day pray, every night pray.
Give thanks. So that's a synonymous parallelism. Now, you want me to go on to another one or am I taking too much time? No, hit it.
[01:09:52] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. I'm writing so fast.
[01:09:54] Don Parry: Okay, another one is, is, is, they're all fascinating to me, but it's called, um, the, I call it word pairs. And that's where two words are paired and and just to give you an idea using modern English We use some of these word pairs we say fame and fortune or we say lo and behold or young and old or Ladies and gentlemen, and we always say it the same way Far and wide.
Uh, we never say gentlemen and ladies or ladies and men or ladies and males. We always say ladies and gentlemen. So that's a word pair in our culture. But the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon have dozens of word pairs. And a biblical scholar Uh, his name is Barbanowski, he actually said to be a word pair, he gave a definition so we could say, okay, what's a word pair?
And he said, one, they have to be the same grammatical class, the word pair. So both nouns, or both verbs, or both adverbs. So both are word pairs. Number two, they have to be in parallel lines if they're in poetry. And number three, they have to occur frequently as a word pair. They can't just be once in the entire Old Testament.
So here's an example of a word pair in 2 Nephi 9, verse 52. And it's a passage I just read, but the word pair is day and night. So, that occurs many times in the Book of Mormon, also the Bible, day and night. And I don't think you'd ever find it night and day. So it's a word pair. Here's another example in the Book of Mormon, uh, good and evil.
If you study that one, I don't think it's ever evil and good. Hearken and hear is another one, soul and heart. A couple more, bless and curse, light and darkness, never darkness and light. It's very interesting. And the last one is righteous and wicked, but there are many, many more. These are just examples.
[01:12:16] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh, my gosh.
This is so fun. Second Nephi is packed with Hebraisms.
[01:12:22] Don Parry: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[01:12:24] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. Do this other one. Do the wo oracle. Because we will see this when we get to 3 Nephi, when Christ comes, we see a wo oracle. Tell us about that.
[01:12:34] Don Parry: All right. Uh, the, the Bible and has what, what are, what the scholars call prophetic or prophets revelatory speech forms.
So the way. Prophets speak and there are five or six of these in the bible and I'll give you examples We actually give names to them. One is the messenger formula formula. It's called thus saith the lord So that's that's prophets say that others don't say that ditch diggers and engineers and policemen and policewomen and and professors and others, we don't say, thus saith the Lord, unless we're quoting scriptures.
But prophets have that privilege of saying, thus saith the Lord, and then they'll quote the Lord. So that's an example of a revelatory speech form. Another one is, hear the word of the Lord. So these are in the Bible, but guess what? They're also in the Book of Mormon. Um, there's one called the whoa Oracle, as you just say, stated and it's whoa, whoa, whoa.
And we find that in second nine. Uh, and there's one more that's found in second nine 16. One more in this category of. prophetic speech forms or revelatory speech forms. It's called the oath formula, and it's where someone, uh, states an oath. So in 2 it says, as the Lord liveth. It's where you're making an oath.
Uh, uh, and, and you're promising something by the power of God's life. Now you could say that you can't say that as I, uh, it has to be on the power of God because his is a perfect, powerful God, God, he's a God of truth and immortal glory and so on. Did I explain that all right?
[01:14:26] Tammy Uzelac Hall: You did, because now I'm struck with that oath formula.
Because Nephi uses that with Zoram. Yes, yes. He says, in 1st Nephi chapter 4 verse 32, As the Lord liveth and as I live. Yes. He's saying, okay, Zoram, enter in. Okay, that's neat. Let me write that reference down. That's so close. Had that hit me in the head. 1st Nephi chapter 4 verse 32.
[01:14:50] Don Parry: And it's found elsewhere in the, in the Book of Mormon also.
. But the idea that these are found in the Book of Mormon really strikes me. I mean, remember, you have 12 weeks to write this book. You have to throw in all these other things and chiasmus and, and, uh, and it came to pass is another very powerful one. And I have a little side note, um, in the 1990s, I met with a general authority, 70, first quorum of the 70.
And he asked me about keeping the expression, and it came to pass. in the Book of Mormon. Should we keep it in there? It takes up a lot of space, and that, uh, I guess there were some translations out there that were putting an asterisk in place of And It Came to Pass to make it, um, make it so it's not such a long book.
And he asked me about it, and I said, well, in my opinion, uh, we should leave it in because it's a Hebraism. It's a very important one. And It Came to Pass. And, and so, uh, he, he was over. The scripture. He had things to do with the scripture committee. And so he said, we'll make sure we don't use the asterisk anymore.
So just a little side note.
[01:16:06] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Well, I am so grateful that they talked to you about that because we talked about it. It came to pass in one of our previous episodes and how important it was, especially in First Nephi 16. I think we counted 31 uses in 39 verses. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And so I, I agree with you. I think it needed to stay for sure.
Oh, that's neat. Okay. But really quickly though, just for our listeners, you said in 12 weeks, Joseph would have written this book. So it's important for us to recognize, I don't know if any of you heard that, but it's estimated that Joseph Smith translated in total, it took 12 weeks. Is that correct? That's what you're saying with that.
[01:16:43] Don Parry: Yes. Um, that's my understanding. Yeah. Not 12 consecutive weeks. Have you heard that too? Yes,
[01:16:50] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I have. But if you took total, in total, all of the days he spent, it would add up to about
[01:16:55] Don Parry: 12 weeks. About 12 weeks. That's what I've been informed.
[01:16:59] Tammy Uzelac Hall: And anyone who's tried to write a paper in college, you know how hard that is.
I can't imagine writing. People say Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon. No way. There's no way he did this. 12 weeks. Forget about it. I just, and to include all the Hebrew reasons because he actually wouldn't even begin studying Hebrew. Isn't it for at least five more years after the Book of Mormon was published?
[01:17:20] Don Parry: That's correct. That's correct. Yes.
[01:17:22] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Forget. Yeah. No, he, he didn't write it. Book of Mormon is the word of God. It just is plain and simple. Absolutely. Stop. Okay. Well, that, that was a lot. And I know my guests are, I know my listeners are just writing so fast and marking your scriptures. I actually chose one color this year to mark all the Hebraisms in my book of Mormon.
So when I get to that color in my mind, I'll go, Oh, okay. That's a Hebraism. And so I've been trying to stay continuous with that. So those of you that are marking him stick with that color.
[01:17:50] Don Parry: You can see my book of Mormon here. The, the, the listeners cannot. Okay. I've gone like this. Yes. On this page. I'm just flipping through this page.
You'll find a Hebraism probably on every page of the Book of Mormon. Wow. Okay, maybe not every page, but we'll just talk about and it came to pass or the many ands or something. I'm just astounded at how many there are and they're important.
[01:18:19] Tammy Uzelac Hall: They are important. And that's why we're going to point them out throughout this entire year.
When we come to them in our reading, I'm going to make sure if we find them to point them out so we can have them. So thank you, Don. Thanks for teaching us. Hebraism. That was a lot of fun. Okay. So then what we're going to do is we're going to come full circle. We have talked about how Jacob said he wanted us to learn and glorify the name of our God.
And so we are going to do exactly that in our next segment.
Segment 6
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[01:18:56] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Let's turn to second Nephi chapter 10. And we are going to mark something so cool. It's in verse three. Now, remember, Jacob wanted us to learn the name of God and glorify the name of God. So we're going to mark one of the names or titles for him. And this is found in verse three. Don, will you please read second Nephi chapter 10 verse three and read just until you get to the second dash.
Here's what Jacob says that's really powerful.
[01:19:23] Don Parry: Thank you. Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ, for in the last night the angel spake unto me, that this should be his name.
[01:19:37] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Wow. Why did you put emphasis on need, must needs be expedient?
[01:19:43] Don Parry: It's absolutely significant. It is so important.
That we know his name and he, he's the one that says it, but I'm emphasizing it. I'm, I'm as a second witness, it is absolutely expedient that we know Christ's name and that we use his name.
[01:20:05] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I think what strikes me is this idea when Jacob says, for in the last night, an angel spake unto me that this should be his name.
What? I didn't connect that this would be the first time we'd see the name Christ in the Book of Mormon. They didn't know it up until this point. Tell me about that.
[01:20:24] Don Parry: Uh, uh, the fact first, let me tell about angels, uh, uh, just as a reminder, angels, an angel spoke to Jacob in chapter 6, verse 9. Chapter 6, verse 11, and then, uh, at this passage, so, so the, the fact that he's taught by an angel, I think, I think it needs to be absolutely clear how important this is to Jacob and to us, the readers, in the last days.
Uh, an angel spoke to Jacob, uh, Jacob could have simply said, I said unto you, it's expedient that Christ, um, and use the name Christ, but he makes it very clear that an angel spake unto me that this should be his name. So that puts extra emphasis on it. Well,
[01:21:19] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Don, you have spent the last couple of years studying angels and you've written a book about angels.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the significance of angels in the Book of Mormon? Because an angel showed me by the vision and we read a lot about them. Just tell us a little bit more about that with your studies.
[01:21:34] Don Parry: Yes. So, uh, just as a reminder, uh, King Benjamin's speech, which is just One of the most impressive speeches in history, an angel revealed to Benjamin what to say.
If you go back to a speech, he says, Oh, an angel told me what to say. Uh, let me just, uh, tell you the power of angels in the Book of Mormon. And the fact that angels are even mentioned there is significant and it matches the Bible because the word angel or malach is found about 200 times in the Old Testament.
The scriptures speak of angels. Angels are God's messengers. And throughout. uh, religious history. Angels are active, and they're active in our day. They're active in Joseph's fifth day. Angels declare Jesus Christ. Angels declare repent, repent. Angels are working with people. The angels of God are also working with the people and preparing people for the missionaries, and they're involved in the same work that we are.
They're helping together Israel, and that's a Book of Mormon doctrine.
[01:22:47] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I have a follow up question with that because here we have a man who's been ordained as a teacher. We have Jacob who has this experience with angels. And then you talked about missionaries having experiences with angels. What about just normal people like me?
Am I allowed to have experiences with angels?
[01:23:04] Don Parry: It's a great blessing and privilege, and yes, you are, you and I and, and, uh, uh, others. And, uh, President Oaks gave a foundational talk on angels in October 1998, and it's called The Aaronic Priesthood and the Sacrament. And I'm going to quote from a couple paragraphs, quote, but the ministering of angels can also be unseen.
Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice, or merely by thoughts, or feelings communicated to the mind. I'm going to jump down. To the next paragraph, Nephi described three manifestations of the ministering of angels when he reminded his rebellious brothers that, one, they had seen an angel, two, they had heard his voice from time to time, and three, also that an angel had spoken unto them in a still small voice, though they were past feeling and could not.
Now, I'm going to, uh, one more quote in the same paragraph, most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen. End of quote.
[01:24:27] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Oh my goodness. I'm going to go read this talk now. This is powerful because I'm going to start looking for these experiences in my life. This is so neat. Thank you, Don, for sharing that.
I don't even know that there's an English word to describe how I'm feeling night right now. I feel overwhelmed, but in a good way, I can't believe how much I have just learned from the doctrine found in second Nephi chapters six through 10. And what may have just seemed like, Oh, Isaiah versus here we go.
And now I'm like, Oh, Isaiah versus here we go. This is so exciting. And this is not the end of the words from Isaiah. We're going to study more as we continue in our come follow me study throughout this year. But I think this is a great springboard, especially with Hebraisms. Pay attention to them. I'm just grateful for the many experiences I had today where I felt the spirit.
as truth was taught. And so just let's gather our thoughts. And is there any takeaway that you'll have, Don, from our discussion to anything you, that struck you as we were just talking about these verses of scripture? Because I got a lot, so many takeaways.
[01:25:28] Don Parry: I got a lot of takeaways too. I am so thankful for this opportunity, Tammy.
It's great to talk about these sacred treasures, the word of God revealed through the prophet Isaiah and. the prophet Jacob. And I'm so thankful for this privilege and opportunity. Thank you.
[01:25:50] Tammy Uzelac Hall: I felt the same way. And I am so grateful for the price that you have paid to know what you know about Hebrew and about the scriptures, and especially for pointing out to us the O exclamations.
I thought that was so neat and how we both came up with our own. But when you bore your testimony of the Book of Mormon, That is what really struck me. And I am grateful for the spirit I felt when you shared that. So this will be a discussion I hope I never forget. So thanks for joining us, Don. Thanks for giving your time.
I know your time is precious. So thank you.
[01:26:22] Don Parry: Thank you. for the privilege. Great honor.
[01:26:27] Tammy Uzelac Hall: Okay. Those of you. Hopefully you're, I don't know if you're still reeling like I am because that was a lot of information and it was super cool. And so I just want to know what was your takeaway. Go join our group on Facebook or on Instagram and share what you have learned.
I think that'd be cool. Or share your woe or sorry, or share your, Oh, exclamation. Like what would you say? Oh, what? That was really neat when we did that with Don. Then at the end of the week on a Saturday, we're going to post a question from this specific episode. So go and answer and comment on the post that relates to this lesson and share your thoughts.
You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode at LDS living. com slash Sunday on Monday. And it's not a bad idea to go there anyway, because it's where we're going to have links to all of the references as well as a transcript of this entire discussion. So go check it out.
The Sunday on Monday study group is a desert bookshelf plus it's original brought to you by LDS living. It's written and hosted by me, Tammy Uzelac hall. And today are just brilliant. Study group participant was Don Parry, and you can find more information about my friend at LDS living. com slash Sunday on Monday.
Our podcast is produced by Cole Wissinger and me. It is edited and mixed by Cole Wissinger and our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks so much for being here with us this week, and we'll see you next week. And please remember that you are God's favorite.