Let’s start by saying Nephi understood!
And there is no way Joseph Smith knew, no way! Discovering things that we knew there was no way Joseph understood has been one of the biggest witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Here is where the Lord has been able to bear a greater witness to my soul in the most powerful way that the Book of Mormon is true.
There is nothing compared to the everlasting love the Lord has for the house of Israel (Jer 31:3). Knowing the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10), he prepared the richest of blessings upon Zion and Jerusalem. He has not forgotten his people.
When we asked the question of why Nephi added Isaiah 48-49, we limited the answer to the idea that these chapters were the rest of his vision (1 Ne 14:28). That may be true, but what if additionally there is a deeper motive closer to Nephi’s heart to why those chapters specifically.
Nephi introduces 1 Nephi 20-21, which is Isaiah 48-49, because those chapters have a direct correlation to the seed of Lehi (1 Ne 22:6-8), which is the tribe of Joseph (1 Ne 5:14), specifically the tribe of Manasseh (Alma 10:3). The fact that Lehi’s seed is from the tribe of Manasseh is significant, and I don’t know if we give it a bigger deal of our relationship with that.
The tribe of Joseph is composed of both Ephraim and Manasseh. The patriarchal blessing of Ephraim was to become the fulness of the Gentiles (Gen 48:19), and the blessing to Manasseh was to become a great people (Gen 48:18-19), and become a righteous branch to the house of Israel (2 Ne 9:53).
The idea of Kings and Queens of the Gentiles carrying and lifting the house of Israel in their arms (Isaiah 49:22-23, 1 Ne 21:22-23), Nephi links directly to the role of the Gentiles with their seed (1 Nephi 22:6-8), Ephraim playing a proxy role for Manasseh. All that represents the seed of Joseph “coming together,” even Ephraim and Manasseh.
This is relevant because although Ephraim is the firstborn (Jer 31:8), the birthright is Joseph’s (1 Chro 5:2), even Ephraim and, Manasseh, and Joseph as a whole have specific blessings and roles to play.
Here is where things get interesting. In 1 Nephi 21, there is a point in the future when Zion will say that the Lord has “forgotten me”:
1 Nephi 21:14
“But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not”.
Then, the Lord uses the imagery of a woman or mother forgetting her sucking child and the son of her womb:
1 Nephi 21:15
15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.
The idea of “sucking child” and “son of the womb” are keywords related to the blessing of “the breast and the womb”, which is the blessing bestowed upon the tribe of Joseph (Gen 49:22), to bring forth a son, even Zion. Here, the Lord is saying that sadly the tribe of Joseph actually “has forgotten” about Zion, but he, the Lord, hasn’t: Yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. (1 Nephi 21:14).
Here is where things get very interesting because the word Manasseh is the Hebrew נשה (nasha), which means “to forget”.
Hebrew scholar Moshe Garsiel in his great book called: Biblical Names: A Literary Study of Midrashic Derivations and Puns, and explains how the Hebrew names create the meaning for the context of what is embedded in the Hebrew text.
Applying that principle, the word Mannaseh is embedded in the three phrases in 1 Nephi 21:14-15: “the Lord has forgotten me”, “Yea, they may forget”, “Yet I will not forget thee”. What the Lord is saying is that he will remember Manasseh, even the seed of Lehi.
The opposite of forgetting is to remember, which is what has been promised to the tribe of Joseph, a branch that has been broken off:
2 Nephi 3:4
4…but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord.
Nephi completely understood these chapters were all about their seed (1 Ne 19:24), that branch that has been broken off (1 Ne 21:1), that is why he is likening this specific chapters from the Book of Isaiah because is all about the role of Ephraim to Manasseh, and the role of Joseph to the house of Israel.
Here is where the connection is even more significant and the “aha moment” to Nephi, and especially to me, as when I read this (I almost fell off my chair). When you change the Hebrew noun Manasseh (nasha') to a verb (nasha'), then the meaning changes to this mindblowing action:
“Verb נשא (nasa') describes an upward motion, generally of something that is being pulled up and out so as to remove it. This verb occurs very often and can usually be translated with (1) to lift or LIFT UP, (2) TO BEAR OR CARRY, and (3) to take or take away” (Abraim Publications, Manasseh).
What!? What do we read right after on how the Lord will show to Zion that the Lord hasn’t forgotten?
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will LIFT UP (’eś·śā) mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be CARRIED UPON (śe·nāh) their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers (1 Nephi 21:22-23).
This is exactly why Nephi said the following in his synthesis of Isaiah 49 in 1 Nephi 22:8.
And after OUR SEED (Manasseh) is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto OUR SEED (Manasseh); wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles and BEING CARRIED (nasa') in their arms and upon their shoulders. (1 Nephi 22:8)
It’s all about the role of Ephram or Gentiles to their seed or Manasseh, “the assemble of Joseph,” and then how Joseph, the ten thousand of Ephraim and Manasseh will gather Israel from the four corners of the earth (Deut 33:17).
The tribe Joseph may forget about Zion, but the Lord hasn’t. Something is going to happen where the Lord will lift up his hand to the Gentiles to remember their birthright and become Ephramites and remember the seed of Lehi, even Manasseh. Nephi saw the connection given by Isaiah, and in the end, Isaiah is the “prophet of prophets” who crafted the most wonderful prophecy.
