Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
2 Nephi Chapter 5
5:24 There is no mistaking the time or person of this prophecy given by Jacob about 559 B.C.
"They should scourge him and crucify him" (25) positively identifies Jesus of Nazareth.
2 Ne 5:28 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in
the flesh and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful, they shall be scattered,
and smitten, and hated;
5:28 Though many perished in the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, A.D. 70, God declared that they
would be "scattered, and smitten, and hated" (28). For many of them death would have been more
merciful.
THOSE WHO FIGHT AGAINST ZION, VER. 30-51.
2 Ne 5:33 Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord, shall lick up the
dust of their feet;
5:33 The last clause is figurative language, signifying humble submission or begging favors.
An article in Reader’s Digest by Albert Q. Maisel presents some interesting facts in support of
these prophecies concerning Israel's help to others. Sierra Leone was promised its independence
from Britain in the spring of 1961. Nothing was done to prepare its capitol building until August,
1960. A commissioner was sent to Israel for help. A planeload of engineers and construction
foremen followed him back. While the architect in Jerusalem was still sketching plans, they
prepared the ground ready to pour the foundation concrete. By April 26, 1961, the building was
ready for the inauguration.
A few months later a team of Israeli veterans were called to Burma to set up an experimental farm
in the million-acre, vacant, and untilled Shan States area. When this pilot operation succeeded,
forty Burmese ex-soldiers went to Israel for a year's training in cooperative farming.
The new nation of Ghana asked, “Would Israel's Zim Israel Navigation Company set up a
subsidiary?" They made a counter-offer to form a partnership with Ghana owning 60 percent of
the shares. In nine months Ghana's new ensign was flying over five vessels, each manned by
double crews of skilled Israelis and Ghanian trainees.
Ethiopia has long suffered from lack of dietary protein, even though some of the world's finest
fishing banks lie along her Red Sea coast. In return for rights given Israeli's fishing fleet, Israel
reciprocated by training Ethiopians in the latest trawling methods.
Nigeria needed pipelines to bring fresh water to scores of growing towns. Israeli experts moved in
and trained Nigerian laborers in the specialized skills required. In four months they completed
sixty-six miles of pipeline. They then trained two thousand more Nigerians who were to complete
the six hundred additional miles of water mains.
By 1960 requests for Israel's aid had become so numerous that its Ministry of Foreign Affairs set
up a special department of international cooperation. Israel held the first International Conference
on Science in the Advancement of New States, to which it invited twenty-three African and Asian
nations. As her contribution to "cross-fertilizing" mutual aid, Israel offered a thou- sand college
and postgraduate scholarships for short-term technical training.