This chapter is comparable to Isaiah 2. Nephi is quoting Jacob who is quoting Isaiah 2.
In this chapter, the last days are described in some detail. He paints a picture of what it will be like right before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
"O ye wicked ones, enter in to the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty shall smite thee."
This is a little bit clearer than Isaiah 2 because it specifies that the addressee is "ye wicked ones" and what exactly the fear of the Lord is going to do.
It's going to smite.
In vernacular, it could be rephrased like this:
"Hey, all you wicked people, you should go hide in a cave or under the ground because the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty is going to get you!"
Except, get is the wrong word.
As usual, this experience is a big giant juggling of semantics. So, what better tool to juggle word meanings than corpus linguistics!?
I'm using this wordcruncher tool (which I don't especially love, I have to say). I discovered that the word "smite" occurs this many times:
OT : 432
NT : 32
BoM : 139
D&C : 20
PGP : 4
I looked at these occurrences of the word "smite" in Isaiah. Then I looked one of them up in Isaiah in a Hebrew language source (I am not quite sure if this is a great source, but it looked okay).
Here's Isaiah 9:12 (it is 9:13 in the KJV)
12 Yet the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts. {S}
{יב וְהָעָם לֹא-שָׁב, עַד-הַמַּכֵּהוּ; וְאֶת-יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, לֹא דָרָשׁוּ. {ס
I chucked the Hebrew into google translate to figure out which word is "smite."
I think this is smite:
הַמַּכֵּהוּ
But I think it is probably like Arabic (and Czech) - there's a word for it that escapes me at the moment - where the word gets extra stuff like pronouns attached to it, but remains as one single word.
I am guessing this is actually "smite":
הַמַּכֵּה
I tried to look it up in a Hebrew corpus using a really cool corpus exploration tool called Sketch Engine but the beta version I am testing out has some errors with reading Hebrew, it seems. It didn't work.
Hmm.
When I play around with these letter combinations on google translate, adding or removing front or end letters, I get this root:
מַּכֵּה
I am guessing this is how Hebrew works - I guess it is probably like Arabic, where words are made up of mostly consonants that form a root, and then little vowels are added above and below a word to change what part of speech they are, how they function, etc. Know the root, unlock deeper layers of meaning - for all kinds of things. It's similar in all languages, honestly, but it's markedly like this in Arabic. Like, it's very, very easy to start guessing what a word will be if you know the root. Usually the root is three consonants or long vowels.
I guess if this really is the Hebrew root for this word, synonyms (according to google translate, so...) are:
blow, hit, stroke, plague, and...a machete. Haha.
Sometimes I think this word has come to mean something like "kill." When I look it up on an online dictionary, the definition is always closer to "hit" - "strike with a firm blow", "defeat or conquer (a people or land)", "(especially a disease) attack or affect severely."
The "fear of the Lord" is not the same as fear born out of anxiety and worry - synonyms for it could be dread, honor, obedience, respect, reverence, and even worship.
Answer:
In the last days, when all people will see and be forced to admit that God is real, his promises are real, the scriptures are true, the prophets were right - and you were wrong - this realization and knowledge will feel like being hit with something very powerful, something unavoidable.
I say "you" but I should have said "we." It is explicitly stated that "the lofty looks of man" and "the haughtiness of men" shall be humbled and bowed down. I guess that includes me, unfortunately. I will continue to try to divest myself of my pride, so maybe that blow won't be so painful.
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