Isaiah is the most quoted of all prophets within the Book of Mormon. As cited by Bruce R. McConkie, of the 1292 verses in Isaiah, 414 verses are quoted and at least 34 more are paraphrased. In another study by John A. Tvetnes, 478 of all Isaiah verses were found to be quoted or paraphrased in the Book of Mormon text. The result is that approximately 1/3 of all Isaiah verses can be found in some form within the Book of Mormon. Though several prophets in the Book of Mormon cite the importance of studying the words of Isaiah, none are as forceful as those of the Savior during His visit to the Nephites: 'a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently, for great are the words of Isaiah (3 Ne 23:1).
Isaiah is quoted or paraphrased by Nephi, Jacob, Abinadi, Christ, and Moroni. The Isaiah text by these authors primarily focuses on chapters 2-14, chapter 29, and chapters 48-54. Additionally, a handful of other verses are quoted or paraphrased throughout the narrative. Within the 'study resource' page is a spreadsheet containing tabs that each correspond to one of the Isaiah chapters quoted or paraphrased in the Book of Mormon.
Each spreadsheet, in general, contains six columns. The first column is the completed Isaiah text taken from the King James Version of the Bible as published by the LDS church. The second column contains the Book of Mormon text of the same verses. As the majority verses in the Book of Mormon contain slight variations from the KJV text, this column only includes verses where the meaning of the verse is significantly different in the Book of Mormon than the biblical text. In accordance with the verses indicated by Bruce R. McConkie in his '10 Keys' document, Messianic verses, those providing prophecies about Christ, have been italicized.The third column represents any time that the author who was quoting the text provides commentary specific to the verses quoted. Special attention should be brought to this column, as this is the message that the Book of Mormon prophets intended by quoting the verses of Isaiah.
In the fourth column, the footnotes from both the LDS versions of the Old Testament and Book of Mormon are considered. Several of these footnotes are included in the column, with special priority given to footnotes that offer clarifying translations or interpretations of the text and those that refer the reader to helpful scriptures about the same topics. Though many footnotes were included, a number of footnotes were not considered for brevity. These generally include footnotes referring the reader to the topical guide, index, or bible dictionary; references that have the reader compare the Book of Mormon and Isaiah text for a particular verse; references that were previously cited within the same chapter; references that provided the reader with other times that a phrase was included in another place of scripture without providing additional understanding of the phrase; and situations where multiple references to other sources provide the same meaning but some are more clear in purpose than others.
The final two columns contain references from a number of sources. Generally, the fifth column contains quotes from the Old Testament institute manual on the topic while the sixth column quotes the Book of Mormon institute manual. However, the brief explanation of each chapter, as provided in Bruce R. McConkie's '10 keys' document is also included within the 5th column.
To help the reader as he or she approaches the text, the following is a summary of the chapters quoted within the study references page:
Isaiah 1: this chapter is not found in the Book of Mormon. However, this can be considered a preface to Isaiah's work, providing an overview of the prophet's purposes in writing the text. As such, it is helpful to review this chapter before reading the other chapters in Isaiah in order to set the reader's mind toward the intended messages of Isaiah.
Isaiah 2-14: these chapters are quoted, in bulk, in chapters 12-24 of 2 Nephi by Nephi. In preparation for quoting the text, Nephi provided the following reasons for this quotation: 'my soul delighteth in his words,' 'I will liken his words unto my people,' 'I will send them forth unto my children,' 'my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ,' 'my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers,' 'my soul delighteth in his grace, and his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death,' 'my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that save Christ should come all men must perish,' and finally 'that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts an rejoice for all men' (2 Ne 11, excerpts). Importantly, in the subsequent chapters, Nephi provides extensive commentary regarding the Isaiah text, especially in chapters 26, 28, 29, and 30 of 2nd Nephi. The relevant commentary is included in the third column of the study resource text to guide the reader's understanding.
Isaiah 29: Many verses paralleling this chapter are found in chapter 27 of 2nd Nephi. Bruce R. McConkie notes that this chapter is regarding the 'Nephites, last days, apostasy, Book of Mormon, and restoration' and that the 'Book of Mormon account is one of the best illustrations of an inspired interpretation of a chapter that is difficult to understand.' I is the opinion of the author that this chapter is an inspired expansion upon the Isaiah text by Nephi. The reasons are as follows: 1) when quoting Isaiah, Nephi always states that he is doing so (see 1 Ne 19:23-24 and 2 Ne 11:8), while the text surrounding 2nd Nephi 27 does not contain a similar statement, 2) while the quotations of Isaiah generally only have minor additions or deletions, the text in 2nd Nephi 27 contains substantial differences when compared to verses 1-12 of the Old Testament KJV text, and 3) the Joseph Smith Translation of the text does not contain many of the additions found in the Book of Mormon. With these in mind, the Isaiah 29 tab includes the following columns: 1) the Old Testament text, 2) the JST of the text, 3) the Book of Mormon text where the verses most closely aligned with the Isaiah text, 4) the surrounding commentary of Isaiah 29 as verses in 2 Ne 27 that do not closely match the text, 5) the footnotes of the Old Testament text and some footnotes of the Book of Mormon text for verses that are closely aligned with the Old Testament text. Footnotes of the surrounding commentary are not included for brevity.
Isaiah 48-49: these are the first two chapters of Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon, quoted in 1st Nephi 20-21. In regard to these chapters, Nephi states the following: 'that I might more fully persuade them [his brethren] to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did like all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.' In the next verse, he states 'hear ye the words of the prophet, ye who are a remnant of the house of Israel, a branch who have been broken off; hear ye the words of the prophet, which were written unto all the house of Israel, and liken them unto yourselves, that ye may have hope as well as your brethren for whom ye have been broken off' (1 Ne 19:23-24). Commentary of these verses can be found in 1st Nephi 17 and 22 as well as 2nd Nephi 3.
Isaiah 50-52:2: Quoted by Jacob in 2 Nephi 7-8. Regarding this quotation, Jacob states that 'I will read you the words of Isaiah. And they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God. And now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel, wherefore, hey may be likened unto your, for ye are of the house of Israel' (2 Ne 6:4-5). Commentary for these verses is dispersed across 2nd Nephi, but Jacob's specific commentary is found in chapter 10.
Isaiah 52: Unlike the other chapters cited, Isaiah 52 is the only chapter of Isaiah that, while nearly all of the verses are quoted in the Book of Mormon (a few verses are omitted from the Book of Mormon text), is not quoted in entirety by any one prophet. Instead, portions of this chapter are quoted or paraphrased by Nephi, Jacob, the wicked priests of King Noah, Abinadi, Moroni, and Jesus Christ. Notably, Verses 7-10 of this chapter are quoted more often in the Book of Mormon than any other Isaiah passage. Commentary on the verses in this chapter is found in Mosiah 15 by Abinadi, 1 Ne 22 by Nephi, and throughout 3rd Nephi by Jesus Christ. Additionally, Doctrine and Covenants 133 contains a question-and-answer session with the Prophet Joseph Smith regarding verses from this chapter. Considering the frequent quotation of and commentary for this chapter, special attention should be brought to these words as they appear to be one of the most important chapters by Isaiah to the prophets of the Book of Mormon.
Isaiah 53: the chapter is considered by Bruce R. McConkie to be 'probably the greatest single Old Testament messianic prophecy.' The chapter is quoted by Abinadi in Mosiah chapter 14 after he demonstrated in the previous chapter that the wicked priests of Noah did not understand the Law of Moses, as everything within the law pointed them to the coming of a Messiah (see Mosiah 13:27-35). Extensive commentary on the chapter is found following the Book of Mormon quotation in Mosiah 15.
Isaiah 54: this is the only chapter by Isaiah quoted in entirety by the Savior. Of this text, Jesus Christ noted 'and now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah. For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the gentiles. And all things that he spake have been, and shall be; even according to the words which he spake' (3 Ne 23:1-3).
Several other verses outside of these blocks of text are quoted or paraphrased throughout the Book of Mormon. These are as follows: Isaiah 22:13, paraphrased in 2 Ne 28:7-8; Isaiah 25:12, paraphrased in 2 Ne 26:15, Isaiah 40:3, paraphrased in 1 Ne 10:8, Isaiah 45:18, paraphrased in 1 Ne 17:36; Isaiah 55:1-2, quoted or paraphrased in 2 Ne 9:50-51 and 2 Ne 26:25; Isaiah 28:1 and 13-14, paraphrased in 1 Ne 14:7 and 2 Ne 28:30, and Isaiah 44:27, paraphrased in Helaman 12:16. For brevity, these verses are not included in this work.