Site:SS lessons/BOM lesson 5

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

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1 Ne 16:1-5

The Book of Mormon > First Nephi > Chapter 16

Previous (1 Ne 15:31-36)

Next (1 Ne 16:6-10)

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Questions

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Verse 1

Nephi’s brothers tell him that the things he has said are too hard to bear. What have they heard that has caused that response?

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Verse 2

In this verse, Nephi explains why they find the truth to be hard. Which meaning of “hard” is relevant, “difficult to understand” or “difficult to bear"? What does the fact that the wicked are cut to their center by the truth tell us about wickedness and truth?

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Verse 3

What is the difference between hearkening to the truth and giving heed unto it?

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Verse 4

Does the word "diligence" modify Nephi's manner of exhortation or the level of obedience to the commandments he expected of his brethren?

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Verse 5

Did Nephi never become cynical about the sincerity of his brothers' many changes of heart?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 6

Why doesn't Nephi say this was a place "we called Lemuel"?

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Verse 7

Why weren't these women "given in marriage" (4 Ne 1:11)?

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Verse 8

Is Nephi saying that Lehi had reached a stopping point, that there were no more commandments left for him to fulfill, or is this a rhetorical device to indicate a transition in his story?

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Verse 9

Why does the Lord wait until only the night before to tell Lehi when they will leave?

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Verse 10

Why does he deliver the Liahona is such an unusual way?
Do Latter-day Saints have anything comparable to Liahona today?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 11

Why might Laman and Lemuel not complain at this departure, especially given its suddenness?

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Verse 12

How did they cross the river if there was no wood available at this point in the journey for making rafts or boats?

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Verse 13

Where did Nephi learn to become this precise with his navigating and directions?

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Verse 14

Was it the food or the families that was located in the wilderness?

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Verse 15

Will we always find food along the path or will we sometimes have to follow paths whose fruit is only found at the end?

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Exegesis

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Verse 16

Were they blazing new trails or following the paths of their predecessors?

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Verse 17

If the food had been plentiful on the trail, so that they could obtain what they needed each day, was this an attempt to store up food for a journey of several days or had the food suddenly become more scarce?

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Verse 18

Could Nephi have done anything to prevent the breaking of his bow?

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Verse 19

Why couldn't they set traps to catch the game that their broken bows were unable to reach?

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Verse 20

Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael didn’t murmur when they departed quickly (v. 10-11), but they do murmur now. What does that difference tell us? What does Lehi’s murmuring suggest?

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Exegesis

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Verse 21

Was there something in the climate that caused all of the bows to break down at the same time?

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Verse 22

Did Nephi have encouraging or reprimanding words for his brothers?

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Verse 23

For what kinds of reasons might Nephi have asked his father where he should go to hunt?

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Verse 24

Did Nephi lecture and humble his father as much as he did with his brothers?

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Verse 25

Did Nephi ever chasten the members of his family, or did he usually leave that up to the Lord and angels?

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Exegesis

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Verse 26

Why was the Lord so quick to answer Lehi's prayers, given the lack of faith he had demonstrated?

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Verse 27

What things did the Liahona communicate to Lehi and his family that caused them to "fear and tremble exceedingly?"

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Verse 28

It is relatively simple to see the Liahona as a metaphor for other things in our spiritual lives that “work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we . . . give unto them.” What are some of those things? Why is our spiritual life like that?

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Verse 29

Nephi himself draws a lesson from the Liahona: “by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” Why might the Lord choose to work by small means? What are some of the small means in your own life that have brought about great ends?

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Verse 30

Is this the first time that Nephi has gotten into a mountain by his own effort?
Why was Nephi directed to go “up into the top of the mountain” to slay beasts? Was that just where the animals were, or is there something else going on?
Since mountaintops are holy places, actual natural temples, is there something else going on here related to killing beasts on mountains/temples?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verse 31

Why is there a footnote here to Gen 9:3? Is this to indicate that somehow Nephi killing beasts on the mount is related to the LORD's covenant with Noah after the flood that allowed Noah and his posterity to eat wild animals?

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Verse 32

Why did Laman and Lemuel allow Nephi to become the new provider for the extended family, rather than asserting their own dominance over the party?

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Verse 33

How was Nephi able to catch and carry enough food for everyone in the party to survive off of for "many days" of travel?

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Verse 34

Why does Nephi decline to say who did the burying?

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Verse 35

Do you think that when Nephi tells us that the daughters mourned exceedingly he means that they mourned excessively? What might excessive rather than “normal” mourning be? Are there any indicators in these verses that they mourned excessively?

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 36

How did they realistically plan to reach Jerusalem if they couldn't even catch the food they needed to survive?

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Verse 37

Notice the strangeness of these events: Ishmael dies and his daughters mourn exceedingly (v. 34-35). Presumably that includes Nephi’s wife. In response, the husband of one of those wives, Laman, urges the husband of another, Lemuel, that they should kill Lehi, their own father. What motivates Laman’s plan?

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Verse 38

Of what do Laman and Lemuel accuse Nephi? What evidence do they have for their accusation?

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Verse 39

Was the Lord trying to make it obvious to everyone there that only the righteous members of the group would be blessed with the ability to obtain food?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 1

How did members of the group perceive the purposes of these afflictions?

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Verse 2

Compare the perspective given here with the perspective given in verses 20-21. What things are included that are the same, and which things are different? What do these differences and similarities suggest?

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Verse 3

If the Lord can't help them until after they keep the commandments, and yet his assistance is specifically designed to help them accomplish the commandments, then how much commandment keeping did these people do on their own and how much was possible because of divine assistance?

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Verse 4

How did these urban people manage to become totally self-sufficient, with the apparent exception of food delivered by the Lord, while cut off civilization for eight years?

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Verse 5

If they had survived eight years in the wilderness, why were they suddenly on the verge of perishing when they arrived at Bountiful?

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Exegesis

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Verse 6

Did the Lord bring this group out of the wilderness and into Bountiful because over the eight years they had become more righteous, or was it because the Lord needed them to set up a new society in the promised land before they became much older?

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Verse 7

What is the significance of prefacing, in the Old Testament way, this command with the word "Arise"?

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Verse 8

What precedents were there in scripture, that Nephi would have been familiar with, for building ships that were approved, let alone designed, by the Lord?

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Verse 9

In chapter 16, Nephi built a bow and asked his father where he should go to hunt. Here, he asks the Lord where he should go to find materials for the boat he is to build. Is that parallel instructive? What does this show us about Nephi? Does it suggest something for us?

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Verse 10

Was Nephi told, as well as shown, the exact location of the ore?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 11

Wouldn't Nephi have needed an oven or a catalyst, besides just blowing air, for super-hot fires that would make the ore molten?

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Verse 12

Were they allowed to build intense fires now that they were far removed from other societies who might notice their smoke?

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Verse 13

Was this a renewal or remaking of covenants?

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Verse 14

What does the Lord mean when he says “After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God"? Doesn’t Nephi already know that?

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Verse 15

Nephi begins this verse with “wherefore.” In other words, what follows is a consequence of what preceded: Nephi strove to keep the commandments because the Lord promised that after arriving in the promised land he would know that the Lord is God, that the Lord delivered them, and that he brought them out of Jerusalem. How does that promise motivate Nephi’s striving for obedience?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

In verses 13 and 14 the Lord stresses that Nephi will come to know that the Lord had led Nephi and his people to the promised land. It is interesting that the Lord seems to desire not just that his people be delivered but that they realize that it is by his hand that it happens. The Lord follows this pattern in other dealings with his people--such as in Exodus 3, where the Lord stresses the importance of letting Pharaoh and the other Israelites know that it is by his hand and authority that Moses comes to deliver them. Later, in Exodus 20:5 the Lord goes so far as to say he is a "jealous God." In modern times we are commanded to "confess his hand in all things" (D&C 59:21).

It appears to be important doctrine to recognize the Lord's hand in good things that happen--and in turn the importance of doing good in the name of the Lord. Some Christian sects take this doctrine to the extreme of arguing that morality does not count unless done as an act of faith--in the name of the Lord (see, e.g., The Deadly Dangers of Moralism). Such a doctrine seems inconsistent with scriptural passages where the Lord indicates he will bless non-believing people for the commandments they do keep (see, e.g., Jacob 3:5-6). That said, it seems obvious that to take the next step beyond being just a moral people to being the Lord's covenant people requires an actual relationship with him. Such a relationship in turn requires knowledge of God and what he has done and will do for us.

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Questions

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Verse 16

Were these ordinary tools or were they, like the ship, divinely designed?

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Verse 17

Was Nephi reluctant to share his ship building plans with his brothers or did he hope they would come around to believing in the plan once they saw his progress?

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Verse 18

In what circumstances did Laman and Lemuel blame the Lord for their misfortunes, rather than members of their immediate family?

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Verse 19

Is this an example of rejoicing in iniquity (see Moro 7:45)?

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Verse 20

Is the claim that Nephi is like his father the only truth embedded in this accusation, or did Laman and Lemuel accurately represent the feelings of at least some of the young mothers in this group?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 21

Were Laman and Lemuel so shallow as to think that their pursuit of materialism could provide all of the happiness they wanted and needed in life?

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Verse 22

Nephi’s brothers say that they know that the people of Jerusalem were righteous because they kept the law of Moses. Were they wrong about that, or is their standard of righteousness the problem?

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Verse 23

Nephi responds to their complaints by asking them to remember the Lord’s dealing with Moses and Israel. (Remembrance is a major theme in the Book of Mormon.) How will that remembrance answer their complaints?

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Verse 24

To what extent does Nephi see himself as a Moses for the group he is leading to the promised land?

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Verse 25

Nephi seems to be comparing the exodus of the Lehi party from Jerusalem with the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. Does he mean to equate the experience of Lehi's family in Jerusalem with the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt? If so, in what way was Lehi's family in bondage in Jerusalem?

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Lexical notes

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Verse 22

Statutes and Judgments. This term appears repeatedly in the Old Testament (see, e.g., Deut 4:1), where it is a translation of two words. Choq is the word translated as "statute." It means an ordinance, limit, boundary enactment, decree, ordinance specific decree law in general enactments, or civil enactments prescribed by God. It is derived from the word chaqaq, which means to carve, cut, or inscribe. Mishpat is the word translated as "judgment." It refers to the act of deciding a legal case, a court, litigation, a judicial decision or right and justice. It is derived from the word shaphat which is a verb meaning to govern or judge. The phrase "statutes and judgments" also appears elsewhere in the Book of Mormon (see, e.g., 2 Ne 1:16).

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Exegesis

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Verses 22-24

These verses set up the extended discourse by Nephi that follows. In verse 22 Nephi's brothers insist that the people at Jerusalem were "a righteous people" because they "kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his comandments, according to the law of Moses." One way of looking at this confrontation and others between Nephi and his brothers is to see it as a contest between dueling approaches to reading the scriptures. Notice that Laman and Lemuel are not irreligious. They appeal to scripture, but do so in a particular way, adopting a self-consciously legal approach to them. They refer to Moses, but only as a lawgiver and their focus is on "the statutes and judgements" of that law. Nephi responds by also invoking Moses, but in a very different way, namely as a prophet who led his people from bondage to a promised land. Notice that Nephi's reading of the Moses story implicitly places himself and his brothers within the narrative. In doing so, he recapitulates an earlier confrontation over interpretation (see 1 Ne 15:5 ), but this time in a much more elaborate manner.

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Questions

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Verse 26

Was Nephi saying they had been taught these stories or that they had a testimony of what happened back then?

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Verse 27

What is Nephi signaling to his brothers with his use of the word "but"?

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Verse 28

Would it be more accurate for Nephi to say "ye have heard"?

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Verse 29

Did Moses smite the rock with his powerful words or with his rod (see Ex 17:6 and Num 20:11)?

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Verse 30

Why is the word "Redeemer" absent from the writings of Moses?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

Notice that Nephi focuses in on three elements in this recounting of Moses's leading the children of Israel:

Crossing the Red Sea
Manna and water in the wilderness
Murmurring against the prophet

There seem to be clear analogs in the experience of the Lehite party. They now sit on the shore of a sea that the Lord has commanded them to cross. When Nephi broke his bow, the Lord provided the party with a way to get food in the wilderness. Laman and Lemuel have murmurred against Lehi. It is also possible that the reference to the pillar of fire that led the Children of Israel in the desert is also a reference to the pillar of fire that first appeared to Lehi ( 1 Ne 1:6 ) thus launching the family's exodus into the wilderness.

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Questions

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Verse 31

What does this verse mean by “there was not anything done save it was by his word"? What things is Nephi talking about, what the children of Israel did or what happened to them? What does “by his word” mean in this context?

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Verse 32

Was this the only version of the settlement of Canaan story that Nephi had ever heard?

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Verse 33

How can Nephi make such a sweeping and unfavorable judgment of the non-Jewish people who were in Canaan, when the Book of Mormon teaches that there must have been enough righteous individuals among the Canaanites for the Lord to deliver scripture to them and all other "nations of the earth" (2 Ne 29:7)?

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Verse 34

Is Nephi hinting at the possibility that Jews did not have a monopoly on being the Lord's chosen people, that it was possible for righteous non-Jews to become "choice" in the eyes of the Lord?

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Verse 35

What does it mean to esteem (to value?) all flesh as one but to favor the righteous? How do esteem and favor differ?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Questions

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Verse 36

Why then have areas of wilderness?

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Verse 37

Does he wait longer to destroy wicked nations in this, the modern age, than he did in ancient times?

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Verse 38

Are some lands inherently more precious than others or is it the degree of righteousness or wickedness of the people living upon them that largely determines the worth of the land?

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Verse 39

What is the function of a footstool?

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Verse 40

How does Nephi explain Israel’s salvation? Is it because Israel was worthy of salvation? What does it mean to say that the Lord remembers his covenants? What does Nephi’s teaching in this verse suggest about us today? about our children?

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Exegesis

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Verse 41

Are chastening and straitening the same thing?

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Verse 42

Why doesn't Nephi distinguish between generations who were wicked and those who were more righteous?

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Verse 43

What explanation would Nephi have given for the preservation of these few?

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Verse 44

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Verse 45

Does this verse imply that the "still small voice" speaks without words, at least in the audible sense?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verse 45

It is important to note that Nephi did not tell his brethren that they "could not hear his words." Instead he was teaching them that spiritual messages most often come through feelings.
The Lord does not use an exotic method to send his children messages. He uses a medium that is already incredibly common to them. Because humans are creatures of emotion, the Lord's use of feelings to send messages to his children maximizes the number of people who will be equipped to receive these messages.
Because the Lord speaks to us through our feelings, we must ever be on guard to distinguish between our own emotions and feelings, one the one hand, and the feelings that carry the messages from our Heavenly Father on the other. These two things work through nearly the same channels and be easily mistaken for one another. The ability to figure out which feeling is which may be related to the gift of discernment. As we are obedient and perform the Lord's work here on earth, our capacity to distinguish between these two sources of feelings will be increased.
If we notice that the Lord seems to be sending us less messages, we should check ourselves and determine whether we have become the limiting factor. It may very well be that we have become too casual in our relationship with the Lord. To remedy this situation, we need to recommit to being obedient, loving, and serving.
Negativity in our thoughts, words, and actions can diminish the number of messages that we receive from the Lord. Dwelling on the negative in life can distort our natural feelings. We can find ourselves becoming cynical about situations, critical of others, and that everyone and everything falls short of our expectations. As we do so, we become emotionally crippled. We forget to find, or become unable to notice, the elements of good in everyone and everything. Once our feelings have become so one-sided, we shut ourselves out from the positive feelings that the Lord wants to send us. Should we be surprised to find it hard to communicate with a God who is the source of all goodness if we have convinced ourselves that his children and creation are full of faults?
In this verse, Nephi teaches that the Lord sends us messages made up of words as well as of feelings. Just like spiritual feelings are designed to be similar to our own emotions, these words from heaven are adapted to our own vocabulary. This means the Lord will send words to our minds that come from our own language. The words will be recognizable, in other words, because they are words with which we are already familiar.
Even though the Lord sends us words that we already know, it is the combination of those words that will be unique to the Lord. He will form the words he sends us into phrases and thoughts that we had not anticipated. Although he may bring things to our remembrance that we already knew, we will not have been thinking of these things at the time he sparked our memory. On other occasions, the Lord will reveal something new to us that is understandable because it is composed of words that we already know.
Elder B. H. Roberts used to say that the Spirit cannot draw upon an empty well. What this means is that the Spirit is limited in what it can reveal to us if we have a very small vocabulary and little schooling. As we gain an education and increase the number of words that we know, there is the potential that the Lord can send us more detailed messages. As our language and learning expand, the Lord can reveal to us a great number of connections between and patterns within the pieces of knowledge we have already obtained. Before we receive these revelations, however, these connections and patterns will not be obvious to us. It takes the influence of the Spirit to make us see what was always before our eyes or to understand what was comprehensible but never before comprehended.
The Lord likely wanted to send the same kinds of messages to Nephi and his brethren. They were, after all, in the same situation with needing to build a ship and to sail to the promised land. However, Nephi's ability to hearken to the Lord qualified him to receive more messages than his brethren. Like Nephi and his brethren, we may find ourselves in situations, like sacrament meetings, where just about everyone has the same ability to hear the same message with their physical ears. However, despite this common experience, there will likely be vast differences in the amount and types of spiritual impressions that each person in the congregation receives. Some of this revelation may be the same for most or all of the people in attendance, such as spiritual verification that what the speaker has said is true, but the rest of the revelation may be adapted to the needs and abilities of the individuals in the audience. Just as their were similarities and differences in the revelations received by Nephi and other members of his family, there can be unifying and personalized revelations received by us and the members of our wards.
Nephi teaches here that it is possible for people to reach the point where they are "past feeling" and can no longer detect the "still small voice." We should be aware of the things in our lives that dull our spiritual sensitivities and weaken our capacity to receives spiritual impressions through our feelings. In the world people talk about individuals who have suppressed, desensitized, or lost their conscience. This is an approximation of what Nephi is talking about. The result is that these individuals no longer feel a moral obligation to treat others with respect. The corollary is that love from another person may or may not touch the hearts of these individuals. It all depends on the extent to which these individuals have become "past feeling."
The Lord does not stop trying to talk to his children once they become "past feeling." He will, if necessary, use the language of physical force ("the voice of thunder") to get our attention. This switching on the Lord's part, from one mode of communication to another, is actually a demonstration of his mercy for his children. Rather than become offended that we have stopped listening to the still small voice, the Lord patiently and lovingly finds other channels through which to obtain our attention. He is slow to give up on us, even if we are quick to stop listening to him.
People are foolish and arrogant if they think their inability to hear and feel messages from the Lord is somehow proof that God no longer speaks to his children. These individuals are the ones who have broken the lines of communication. The Lord always stands ready to communicate to his children. In fact, the blame is entirely upon these individuals, rather than the Lord, because he has already made attempts to send messages to them, just like Laman and Lemuel received an angel, but they turned a deaf ear to these feelings and tuned out the Lord's voice to them.

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Questions

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Verse 46

Why does Nephi mix prophesied certainties with statements of capability?

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Verse 47

In the Old Testament, anguish is what sinners feel. After Christ comes, sorrow is what his disciples feel for the sins of the world. Is Nephi feeling both of these emotions?

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Verse 48

What does Nephi mean when he says the power of God is consuming his flesh? Is he echoing Old Testament passages that talk about sacrifices where divine fire consumes the flesh of the animal?

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Verse 49

Why is the word "labor"--which is found here and throughout the restoration scriptures--absent from the Bible?

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Verse 50

Why doesn't Nephi say that whatever the Lord commands will "happen"?
Who or what is performing the action when Nephi says "it would be done"?

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Exegesis

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Verse 51

What does vs. 51 tell us about God's willingness to instruct us in "mundane" tasks? Can we get similarly detailed instructions for the things God has commanded us to do?

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Verse 52

If Nephi's brothers were "past feeling," then what were they experiencing when the Spirit powerfully "wrought upon them"?

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Verse 53

Is the promise that Laman and Lemuel would "not wither" proof that they had suddenly started repenting?

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Verse 54

How should we interpret Nephi's use of physical force against his brothers in light of modern LDS instructions not to exercise dominion through compulsory means(D&C 121:37)?

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Verse 55

Why did Laman and Lemuel confess the hand of the Lord and then seemingly immediately attribute the divine intervention to their brother Nephi?

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Verse 5

Nephi here states explicitly his own outline for his text. Stating that he will only later give an account of his actual physical production of the "small plates" (an account that begins in 2 Ne 5:29), he then goes on to say that it is only after that account ("and then") that he will "proceed according to that which I have written." This last phrase apparently has reference to verse 3, the "commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these [the small] plates." In other words, the "sacred" writings Nephi is commanded to record on the "small plates" only begin with the opening of 2 Ne 6:1. According to Nephi's textual outline, the record divides itself into two parts: 1 Nephi 1-2 Nephi 5 and 2 Nephi 6-33. Why this does not follow the division between 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi remains a puzzle. Regardless, Nephi's words here are certainly clear.
Naturally, the question arises in the face of what Nephi says here why it is that Nephi records anything besides the "sacred" portion of his record that begins in 2 Nephi 6. Verses 5 and 6 together respond to just that question. In verse 5, Nephi explains that the deferral of the sacred portion until a relatively late point in his record is done so "that the more sacred things may be kept for the knowledge of my people." This may be read in a number of ways, but it is at least clear that Nephi believes his sacred writings will be better preserved if they are contextualized by the "less sacred" (?) history recorded in 1 Nephi 1-2 Nephi 5. Verse 6 goes on to flesh this idea out at greater length.

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Questions

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Verse 6

Nephi tells us that he has only written sacred things on the plates. Does this mean that the material of 1 Ne 16:12-13, where we learn that they took seeds with them and that they went south-southeast and called one of their stopping points "Shazer," is sacred? If this is sacred what does it mean that he only wrote that which was sacred?

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Verse 7

At the end of the verse Nephi says that some people set the Lord "at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels." Is he using parallelism to explain what he means by "setting the Lord at naught"? Why do the scriptures so often use verbs of hearing, such as "hearken" to talk about obedience?

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Lexical notes

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Exegesis

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Verses 6-7: if I do err

The clause "if I do err" (v 6) seems to mean something like, if some of what I wrote isn't sacred. The rest of verse 6 suggests that Nephi takes this possibility seriously. He has tried to do the best he can but he recognizes that he isn't infallible; he excuses himself "because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh." At the same time he compares himself to those "of old." It seems he is referring to the writers of earlier scriptures. Nephi was likely purposefully trying to write something with the same character as the scriptures he knew.

Where verse 6 takes the possibility that some of what Nephi wrote is not in fact sacred, verse 7 suggests another alternative. The example Nephi gives is that some people will trample even God under their feet--they do not not hearken to His voice. By comparison, the implication is that it may be that some people reject what Nephi is saying not because Nephi is in fact wrong, but because they aren't treating as sacred that which they should.

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Questions

v. 15: Here Nephi uses a different metaphor, turning away from God. How is this metaphor related to that of v. 7? Could we paraphrase this verse to say, “When Israel remembers its covenant with the Lord, then he will remember his covenant with them"? If so, of what covenant is Nephi speaking? How does Israel remember its covenant? How does the Lord remember his?

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Exegesis

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Questions

v. 18: Compare this verse to 1 Ne 1:20 and 1 Ne 6:4. Nephi describes his purposes in writing in three different ways. How are those ways related to each other?

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Verse 21

Did any ancient prophets testified about the Nephites?

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Verse 22

When Nephi refers to "the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old" is he refering to just the lands and peoples of Israel and Judah, or did the Brass Plates contain sacred writings from other peoples?

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Verse 23

How is it possible to liken all scriptures to our modern lives and situations without resorting to forced comparisons?

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Verse 24

Nephi introduces his readings from Isaiah by telling them to hear those words and to “liken them” to themselves. Given what Nephi has just been talking about, how are Isaiah’s writings relevant to Nephi’s people? How are the particular chapters that Nephi chooses relevant?

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Verse 25

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Exegesis

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Verse 3-4

Do these verses help us understand why Nephi is reading from Isaiah?

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Verse 4

Is "thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass" Isaiah's way of saying "stiff-necked" and "hard-headed"?

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Verse 5

Who is Isaiah referring to when he says "before it came to pass I showed them thee"? Also what does Isaiah mean when he says that some will say that "mine idol hath done them, and my graven image"? What is being blamed on the graven images?

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Exegesis

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Questions

Verse 8: If little children are innocent, how can someone be a "transgressor from the womb"? Does this have anything to do with varying states of righteousness in our pre-mortal existence?
Verse 9: When the Lord says, “for my name’s sake I will defer mine anger,” what is he saying? What does he mean by “my name” in this verse? Is it parallel to “my praise"? If so, what is the point here, and how are we to understand that point? Does verse 11 answer these questions?
Verse 10: In verse 4, the Lord described Israel as obstinate. Here he says they have been refined and were chosen in affliction. How do those go together?

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Site:SS lessons/BOM lesson 5

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

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Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

Verse 5

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Verse 6

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Verse 11

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Verse 16

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Verse 21

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Verse 26

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Verse 31

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Verse 36

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