2 Nephi 15:8-25

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 15:8-25

Quotes for Discussion

Six Woes upon the Wicked

What is that special form of sin which Isaiah sees? It is human selfishness—the unbrotherhood of man to man….The cry which rises into his ears is the cry of stricken humanity—the cry of the poor and needy, the cry of the sad and weary….He hears God calling him to lash the sins of the nation; but to him all the sins of the nation are forms of a single sin—selfishness. Does he deplore idolatry; it is because the idols of man are images of man’s own glory. Does he repudiate extravagance in dress and luxury in living; it is because this outlay of wealth might have been for the sake of the destitute…To him the evil is not without but within, and can only be cured from within—by cultivating the barren spots in the life of the community. The burden of Isaiah is the burden of human compassion. It is the desire to right the wrongs which man has done to his brother….

The preparation he proposed for meeting god was not [just] the attendance at the temple, not [just] the observance of the Sabbath,…but the sympathy of the heart with the wants and woes of man….It seemed to him that before a man could begin to think of others, he must cease to think of himself—must become self-unconscious.

George Matheson, The Old Testament and the Fine Arts, comp. Cynthia Pearl Maus [New York: Harper & Row, 1954[, 561-62

1.

Rich who are covetous and oppress the poor (vs. 8-10).

2. Drunkenness of riotous living (vs. 11-12)

3. Vanity (vs. 18-19)

4. Deception—good-evil, evil-good

5. Pride (vs. 14-15, 21)

6. Lifestyle of those who reject God and think themselves good, justify wickedness (vs. 22-23)/