1 Nephi 22:5-8

Nephi continues teaching about the scattering of the Jews.

Why will the Jews be scattered?  They shall be “scattered and be confounded, because of the Holy One of Israel; for against him will they harden their hearts; wherefore, they shall be scattered among all nations and shall be hated of all men” (1 Nephi 22:5). Earlier, Nephi had told his brethren, “And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations” (1 Nephi 19:14).

 In addition to the prophesies that had been given, the Savior warned the Jews:

Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? [JST Luke 23:32 This he spake, signifying the scattering of Israel, and the desolation of the heathen, or in other words, the Gentiles.]

Luke 23:28 - 31

Even though they will become a “hiss and a byword,” the will be cared for by the gentile.  After the gentiles have accepted the gospel, the gospel will be taken to the Jews.  Mormon would write:

Yea, and surely shall he again bring a remnant of the seed of Joseph to the knowledge of the Lord their God.

And as surely as the Lord liveth, will he gather in from the four quarters of the earth all the remnant of the seed of Jacob, who are scattered abroad upon all the face of the earth.

And as he hath covenanted with all the house of Jacob, even so shall the covenant wherewith he hath covenanted with the house of Jacob be fulfilled in his own due time, unto the restoring all the house of Jacob unto the knowledge of the covenant that he hath covenanted with them.

And then shall they know their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and then shall they be gathered in from the four quarters of the earth unto their own lands, from whence they have been dispersed; yea, as the Lord liveth so shall it be.  Amen.

3 Nephi 5:23 - 26

The Savior would teach the Nephites:

And blessed are the Gentiles, because of their belief in me, in and of the Holy Ghost, which witnesses unto them of me and of the Father.

… and because of the unbelief of you, O house of Israel, in the latter day shall the truth come unto the Gentiles, that the fulness of these things shall be made known unto them.

And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel …

And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.

And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel.

3 Nephi 16:6 - 7, 10 - 12

After the gentiles have become a might nation, and the Jews were scattered, a marvelous work will be done among the gentiles.  During Nephi’s vision, he would be told,

For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.

1 Nephi 14:7

As we read Nephi’s teachings, we “hear the language, the echoes from Isaiah. So, what Nephi is doing is saying that anyone can understand Isaiah if he or she reads it by the Spirit of the Lord.”[1]

In verse 8, we read the words of Nephi as saying the work “shall be of great worth unto our seed; wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles.”  Grant Hardy explains that “…Analysis of Textual Variants in the Book of Mormon has many more corrected readings, including 1 Nephi 22:8, where the Lamanites would be ‘nursed’ (original manuscript) rather than ‘nourished’ (printer's manuscript and all printed editions) by the Gentiles and restored to the lands of their ‘first’ inheritance (verse 12, though the printer's manuscript and every edition has omitted that word). “[2]

---

[1] Book of Mormon, Teachings Nephi II, Noel B. Reynolds, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 4, 2013.

[2] Scholarship for the Ages, Grant R. Hardy, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed May 4, 2013.