Isaiah prophesied that the city of Jerusalem (which he called Ariel) would be “brought down.” Consequently, her speech would be “low out of the dust,” and her voice would come “out of the ground” (Isaiah 29:1-4).
It sounds like a description of people who are trodden down and in distress. It sounds as though the inhabitants of Jerusalem are being held down by their captors, unable to move or to stand.
When Nephi quotes and expands this chapter, he adds some significant details. First, it’s his own descendants who will be “brought down low in the dust.” Second, the voice from the ground represents the “words of the righteous,” which will be “sealed up in a book” (2 Nephi 26:15-17). God will bring that book forth in the last days (2 Nephi 27:1, 6).
Nephi may have been influenced by a prophecy of his ancestor, Joseph, quoted by his father Lehi, that the words of some of his descendants would be brought forth, effectively causing those descendants to “cry from the dust” to future generations (2 Nephi 3:19-20).
Nephi definitely saw himself in this prophecy. In the final verses of his second book, he writes, “I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust” (2 Nephi 33:13). Moroni adopts the same terminology in describing his contribution, coupling it a few verses later with Isaiah’s admonition for Jerusalem to “arise from the dust” (Moroni 10:27, 31; compare Isaiah 52:2).
The imagery of their words rising from the dust must have been particularly meaningful to Moroni, who buried the plates containing those words (Mormon 8:4). Another way in which they spoke “from the dust,” echoing more closely Isaiah’s original imagery, is that both authors were painfully aware of their own weakness as they wrote (see 2 Nephi 33:1, 4, 11; Ether 12:23-27). In fact, Alma and Amulek both admonished people to humble themselves “to the dust” (Alma 34:38; Alma 42:30), suggesting that the posture of the conquered Israelites was a precondition for the blessings that followed.
So the Book of Mormon reinterprets Isaiah’s imagery of defeat as a conduit of spiritual power, and then adopts it as a self-description. Its authors view themselves as speaking from the dust, both literally and symbolically. The book teaches that followers of God ought to humble themselves to the dust, following the examples of its authors. God gives power to those who speak out of the ground (2 Nephi 26:16). He makes the weakness of their words strong (2 Nephi 3:21). Moroni can therefore end the book by inviting Jerusalem to “arise from the dust” because she has already been humbled to the dust.
Today I will humble myself recognizing my weakness but speaking with confidence that God can do great things with my simple words.
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