Isaiah 2

The Mountain of the Lord’s House

All nations streaming uphill to the temple, and a proud people who must first be brought low.

c. 740–730 BC, early in Isaiah’s ministry; the prophecy reaches to the last days Also in 2 Ne. 12 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapters 2–4 form a single unit with a fresh heading (2:1). They were probably delivered early in Isaiah’s ministry, during the prosperous reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, when Judah…

Chapters 2–4 form a single unit with a fresh heading (2:1). They were probably delivered early in Isaiah’s ministry, during the prosperous reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, when Judah was wealthy, well-armed, and spiritually complacent. That background matters: the pride Isaiah attacks is the pride of success.

The unit has a clear shape. It opens with a vision of Zion’s glory (2:2–4) and closes with another (4:2–6). Between those two visions sits a long indictment of pride (2:5–4:1). In other words, Isaiah frames judgment with hope. We’re shown where the story is going before we’re shown what must be burned away on the way there.

Nephi copied this chapter into his record (2 Ne. 12), and his version differs from the King James text in several instructive places.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 2 is built on a single contrast between two directions: up and down.

Isaiah 2 is built on a single contrast between two directions: up and down.

The first four verses are all about ascent. The Lord’s house is lifted to the “top of the mountains,” “exalted above the hills,” and the nations “flow” to it. Picture a river running uphill. People say, “Come… let us go up.” It is a stunning picture of what the Lord intends: a world that has learned His ways, with its weapons turned into farm tools.

Then verse 5 turns to Isaiah’s own people with an invitation: “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” If the nations will one day come, surely Israel should come now. But verses 6–9 show why they can’t. They are full: full of foreign practices, full of silver and gold, full of horses and chariots, full of idols. A people that full has no room for the Lord.

So the rest of the chapter is about descent. Everything “high and lifted up” is brought low: cedars, oaks, mountains, towers, walls, ships, and above all “the loftiness of man.” Twice Isaiah repeats the refrain, “the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day” (verses 11, 17). The chapter ends with idols tossed to the moles and bats and people hiding in caves.

The logic is simple and piercing. There is only room for one thing to be exalted. Either we lift ourselves up, and the Lord brings us down, or we go up to His house to be taught, and He lifts us. The mountain of the Lord’s house is the only height that is safe to climb.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–5

All nations flow to the Lord’s house

In plain words

In the last days the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains, and every nation will stream to it. People will say, “Let’s go up to the Lord’s house so He can teach us His ways.” His law will go out from Zion and His word from Jerusalem. He will settle disputes between nations, and they will turn their weapons into farm tools and never train for war again. So come, people of Jacob, let’s walk in the Lord’s light.

1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Restoration Insight #

A temple in the tops of the mountains

In ancient Israel, mountains were places where heaven touched earth: Sinai, Moriah, Zion.

In ancient Israel, mountains were places where heaven touched earth: Sinai, Moriah, Zion. “The mountain of the LORD’s house” means the temple. The Hebrew says the temple mount will be established “as the head of the mountains,” the chief and highest of them. That is a spiritual claim more than a geological one. Physically, the temple mount in Jerusalem is lower than the hills around it.

Latter-day Saints have long seen a literal fulfillment in the temples of the Restoration, and especially in the gathering of the Saints to the Rocky Mountains and the building of the Salt Lake Temple. The early hymn “High on the Mountain Top” (Hymns, no. 5) applies the verse this way. More broadly, every temple dedicated today is another place where “all nations” come to be taught of the Lord’s ways. There are now temples on every inhabited continent.

Sources: High on the Mountain Top, Hymns, no. 5. “Temple”, Bible Dictionary.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Restoration Insight #

Two world capitals

In Hebrew poetry, “Zion” and “Jerusalem” here would normally be two names for one place, said twice for emphasis.

In Hebrew poetry, “Zion” and “Jerusalem” here would normally be two names for one place, said twice for emphasis. Latter-day revelation opens a second possibility. The Book of Mormon speaks of two holy cities in the last days: a New Jerusalem built in the Americas and the old Jerusalem rebuilt (Ether 13:2–11). The Doctrine and Covenants says the Lord will “utter his voice out of Zion, and he shall speak from Jerusalem” (D&C 133:21).

Many Latter-day Saint teachers have read Isaiah 2:3 in that light: during the Millennium the Lord’s law will go forth from two centers, Zion in the Americas and Jerusalem in the Holy Land. Both readings honor the text. The core promise is that the Lord Himself will govern and teach.

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Imagery & Symbol #

Swords into plowshares

A plowshare is the metal blade of a plow; a pruning hook is a curved knife for trimming vines.

A plowshare is the metal blade of a plow; a pruning hook is a curved knife for trimming vines. Iron was precious, so it would be reforged, not thrown away. Isaiah pictures blacksmiths hammering weapons into farm tools because no one needs weapons anymore.

The image is so powerful that the prophet Joel deliberately reversed it for a time of war: “Beat your plowshares into swords” (Joel 3:10). Isaiah’s version describes the Millennium, when the Prince of Peace rules (Isa. 9:6–7; D&C 101:26). Today a bronze statue of a man beating a sword into a plowshare stands at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a gift from the Soviet Union in 1959. It is a small sign that this verse speaks to deep human longing.

Micah records nearly identical words (Micah 4:1–4). Micah was Isaiah’s contemporary, and whether one quoted the other or both drew on an earlier prophecy is unknown. Micah adds a line: “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.”

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Verses 6–9

A people too full for God

In plain words

But You have abandoned Your people, because they are filled with practices from the East and fortune-telling like the Philistines. They make deals with foreigners. Their land is full of silver, gold, horses, and chariots, and full of idols they made themselves. Everyone, high and low, bows to them.

6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.

7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:

History & Setting #

Everything a king was told not to multiply

Look at the list in verses 7–8: silver and gold, horses and chariots, idols.

Look at the list in verses 7–8: silver and gold, horses and chariots, idols. Now read Deut. 17:16–17, the law for Israel’s kings: the king “shall not multiply horses to himself… neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” Isaiah is describing a nation that had become everything the law warned against.

In the ancient world, horses and chariots were military technology, the tanks and fighter jets of their day. A land “full of horses” trusted its arsenal. Isaiah later says bluntly: “Woe to them that… stay on horses, and trust in chariots… but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 31:1).

8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

Liken It #

Worshipping what we make

The absurdity Isaiah mocks throughout the book is bowing down to something you made yourself (see Isa. 44:9–20 for his most biting satire).

The absurdity Isaiah mocks throughout the book is bowing down to something you made yourself (see Isa. 44:9–20 for his most biting satire). Few of us carve idols. But the principle behind the verse is timeless: we are always tempted to trust and serve the work of our own hands, whether our careers, our savings, our reputations, or our cleverness.

President Spencer W. Kimball made this point in a well-known 1976 article. Modern idols, he said, include possessions, careers, and the trust we place in our own strength, anything we put before the Lord. A useful test is to ask what we reach for first when we are afraid.

Sources: Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship”, Ensign, June 1976.

9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

Restoration Insight #

A verse the Book of Mormon clarifies

This verse is confusing in the King James Version. Bowing and humbling oneself sound like good things, so why add “therefore forgive them not”?

This verse is confusing in the King James Version. Bowing and humbling oneself sound like good things, so why add “therefore forgive them not”? The answer is that they are bowing to idols (verse 8). “Mean” here means common or low-ranking, not cruel: everyone, high and low, bows to what they made.

Nephi’s version reads differently: “the mean man boweth not down, and the great man humbleth himself not, therefore, forgive him not” (2 Ne. 12:9). Now the verse describes people who refuse to humble themselves before God, and the harsh ending makes sense. Either way, the point is the same: their worship is pointed in the wrong direction.

Sources: Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.

Verses 10–22

The day of the Lord against all that is proud

In plain words

Hide in the rocks from the Lord’s glory! Proud looks will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. His day will come against everything proud and towering: the tallest trees, the highest mountains, every tower and wall, every great ship and luxury. People will throw their gold and silver idols to the moles and bats and run for the caves when He shakes the earth. So stop trusting in mere humans, whose life is only a breath. What are they worth?

10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Word & Language #

“High and lifted up”: a phrase with a history

Verses 12–16 hammer on one idea: everything high, lofty, and lifted up will be brought low.

Verses 12–16 hammer on one idea: everything high, lofty, and lifted up will be brought low. Watch that vocabulary, because Isaiah uses it with great care. In chapter 6 he sees the Lord “high and lifted up” (Hebrew ram venissaʾ, Isa. 6:1). In chapter 57 the Lord is “the high and lofty One” (Isa. 57:15). And in chapter 52 the suffering Servant will be “exalted and extolled, and be very high” (yarum venissaʾ, Isa. 52:13).

In Isaiah, “high and lifted up” belongs to God and to His humble Servant. When humans claim it for themselves, it is a kind of blasphemy, and the day of the Lord brings it down. The one who descends below all things is the one who is exalted (D&C 88:6; Philip. 2:8–9).

13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

Imagery & Symbol #

Trees, towers, and ships

Isaiah catalogs the most impressive things an Israelite could imagine.

Isaiah catalogs the most impressive things an Israelite could imagine. The cedars of Lebanon were the tallest trees in the region, used for Solomon’s temple. The oaks of Bashan grew in the fertile highlands east of Galilee. Then come high mountains, towers, and fenced (fortified) walls, and finally the ships of Tarshish, the great ocean-going merchant ships.

Nature, military might, and commerce are all symbols of human pride and self-sufficiency, and all of them will be humbled. The same trees reappear when the Lord fells Assyria like a forest (Isa. 10:33–34).

Sources: “Lebanon”, Bible Dictionary. “Bashan”, Bible Dictionary. “Tarshish”, Bible Dictionary.

14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,

16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

Restoration Insight #

The Book of Mormon’s extra ships

This verse is one of the best-known textual puzzles in the Book of Mormon’s Isaiah chapters.

This verse is one of the best-known textual puzzles in the Book of Mormon’s Isaiah chapters. The Hebrew text reads “upon all the ships of Tarshish.” The Greek Septuagint, translated in the last centuries before Christ, reads instead “upon every ship of the sea.” Nephi’s version has both: “upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures” (2 Ne. 12:16).

A plausible explanation is that the original verse had three lines, and each later textual tradition lost a different one. Joseph Smith, translating in 1829, had no access to the Septuagint and couldn’t read Greek. Latter-day Saint scholars have long pointed to the verse as a small evidence that the brass plates preserved an early form of Isaiah’s text.

Sources: Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998. Donald W. Parry, Harmonizing Isaiah: Combining Ancient Sources, Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001.

17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 2

The Lord in Isaiah 2 is the Teacher whom all nations come to hear (verse 3), the Judge who settles their disputes (verse 4), and the Prince of Peace under whom war ends. He is also the one who “alone shall be exalted” (verses 11, 17).

That refrain reaches its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death… wherefore God also hath highly exalted him” (Philip. 2:8–9). The Savior is the model of the chapter’s whole logic. He descended below all things (D&C 122:8) and was lifted up. Pride tries to climb its own tower. Discipleship follows Him down in humility, and then up the mountain of the Lord’s house.

Liken it to yourself

Verse 6 describes a people “replenished” (full) of other things. What fills my life so completely that there’s little room left for the Lord?
The nations go up to the temple to be taught. Do I go to the temple expecting to learn something, or only to complete something?
Where am I tempted to trust “the work of [my] own hands” (verse 8)? What would it look like to “cease from man” (verse 22) in that area?
Isaiah’s picture of swords turned into plowshares begins in individual hearts. Is there a conflict in my life, in my family, ward, or workplace, where I could beat a sword into something useful?

Worth exploring next

Isaiah 2 and Micah 4. Compare Isa. 2:2–4 and Micah 4:1–5. What does Micah add? Why might two prophets record the same prophecy?
Nephi’s version. Read 2 Ne. 12 side by side with this chapter, paying attention to verses 5, 9, 10–12, 16, and 21. Several of Nephi’s differences make the chapter clearer.
The whole unit. Read chapters 2–4 in one sitting. Notice how the glorious Zion of 2:2–4 reappears, transformed, in 4:2–6, and what has to happen in between.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Nephi’s text of this chapter (2 Ne. 12) reads differently from the King James Version in 15 verses. The BoM markers show the 12 where more than a small word changes.

2 Ne. 12 — Nephi quotes the entire chapter, with several significant differences.
Micah 4:1–3 — A nearly identical prophecy of the mountain of the Lord’s house.
Rev. 6:15–16 — John echoes the proud hiding in the rocks.

Sources & further reading

Bruce R. McConkie, “Ten Keys to Understanding Isaiah”, Ensign, Oct. 1973.
Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998.
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
Terry B. Ball and Nathan Winn, Making Sense of Isaiah: Insights and Modern Applications, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2009.
Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982.
Chapter 13: The Establishment of Zion (Isaiah 1–12), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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