2 Nephi

• Out of 33 chapters, there is only one historical chapter in 2 Nephi.
• 2 Nephi is what Nephi wanted his people to know of the doctrine. In it he shares the teachings of his father Lehi and his own teachings.
• Talk: “Sins and Suffering,” by Elder Dallin H. Oaks

2 Chronicles 15:2-3:

And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
3 Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

In the scripture above, the priests had not been doing their job. King Asa does not fix this, but Jehoshaphat does (see 2 Chron. 17).

• In ancient theocracy, the king does not call prophets. God does. But there were court prophets.  Isaiah was a court prophet.  Micah, who prophesied at the same time, was not.
• Ancient prophets are warners.  Today, the prophet is the head. Anciently, women were prophetesses, but not priests (men only). They had only the Holy Ghost. Anciently there was a school of the prophets.
• Samuel of OT was priest/judge/prophet…all three in one man.

Moses 6:67:         

And thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity.

            Order means temple ordinances.  (See “What I Hope You Will Teach Your Children about the Temple,” Ezra Taft Benson, Tambuli, Apr 1986, 1.) 

•  Isaiah is a master of Hebrew literary style. Jesus quoted Isaiah, not the other way around. Isaiah and Joseph Smith both wrote their impressions. “Great are the words of Isaiah,” said Jesus.
•  Nephi has placed Isaiah’s words (which he knows we have already) in a new context, that of 2 Nephi. We must read 2 Nephi as an entire work.
•  Nephi knows how to write well too.  See 1 Nephi 1:1.
• Isaiah prophesies of things that have multiple fulfillment.  For example, the destruction of Jerusalem. This happened in 701 BC, 587 BC, 70 AD, 135AD, and will happen again at the second coming. 
• When Nephi says “Like unto us” means liken what has been prophesied by Isaiah to our day.