2 Nephi 16:12-13

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 16:12-13

12 And the Lord have removed men far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

13 But yet there shall be a tenth, and they shall return, and shall be eaten, as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Quotes for Discussion

Isaiah associated the oak and the terebinth not only with apostasy but also with restoration. Both kinds of trees are robust and cannot be destroyed merely by chopping them down, for the remaining stumps will regenerate the tree by sending forth new shoots….(Isa. 6:12-13).

Accordingly, Isaiah taught that a part of Israel would return like the oak and terebinth, which, though they are eaten or consumed (hayetah lebaer) right to their substance or stumps (matzebeth), yet they possess a seed in them that can regenerate (see Isa. 6:13)

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], p.29

The Lord declared to Isaiah that after he had given his message of accusation all the days of his life, and after the land had been devastated and Isaiah was dead, there would be a tenth of the people who would return to the land of Palestine.

This remnant is symbolized in the King James Version by dormant trees, signifying that this rest of the House of Israel will be spiritually fallow. The key to understanding that this verse also refers to Christ lies in the words “the holy seed.” As Paul states in Galatians 3:16, the “seed” referred to the Old Testament in Christ. And it is the “seed” that compromised the substance, that is the life or Israel, here symbolized by trees. In other words, the Messiah of Israel would be born of the spiritually dormant remnant of Israel living in the land of Palestine and He is the life substance of Israel.

Paul Y. Hoskisson, The Old Testament and the Latter-day Saints: Sperry Symposium 1986 [Randall Book Co., 1986], p. 201-202