2 Nephi 15:24

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 15:24

24 Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, their root shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

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Stubble and Chaff

On blustery days after the harvest, the Israelite farmer took advantage of the wind to winnow his threshed grain. The threshed mixture of chaff, chopped stubble, and seed would be gathered upon a winnowing board or fork and tossed into the air. There the wind would catch the light chaff and stubble and blow it away while the heavy, clean kernels would fall back to the earth for the farmer to collect. Once the grains were removed, the remaining chaff and stubble would be dispersed by the wind or burned in a fire that was extremely hot, fast, and furious. Isaiah saw the fleeting chaff and stubble as a type of the temporality of the wicked. He warned that just as the “chaff of the mountains” is chased “before the wind” (Isa. 17:13) and as the “fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff” (Isa. 5:24), so shall Jehovah destroy the enemies of the covenant people and the apostates of Israel (see Isa. 29:5; 33:11; 40:24; 41:2, 15; 47:14).

Terry Ball, Thy People Shall Be My People and Thy God My God: The 22nd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium [salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994], 25