The Book of Mormon prophets also declared that their promised land would be “cursed for their sakes” after the destruction of their civilizations, the sweeping of their people off the land and the desolation of their dwelling places. Alma predicted this fourth and ongoing stage and explained that the Lord’s cursing of the land comes because of sin:

Alma also declared:

Nephi explained the justification for the Lord’s cursing of a land:

Jacob reiterated this principle to his people by quoting the words of the Lord:

Enos was taught this principle directly from the Lord’s voice:

Mormon recorded the actual cursing of the land:

When the concept, “cursing of the land,” occurs in the Book of Mormon, it is followed by the phrase, “for their sakes.” For example, Nephi’s statement: “And [the Lord] leadeth away the righteous into precious lands, and the wicked he destroyeth, and curseth the land unto them for their sakes” (1 Ne. 17: 38; see also, 2 Ne. 1:7; Jacob 2:29; 3:3; Morm. 1:17, above). The word “sakes” can have the meaning of “benefit,” as in, “cursed for their benefit,” but the prevalent meaning of the word “sakes” in older English refers to “crimes, transgressions, sins, guilt, contentions, strife” (see “sakes” in the Oxford English Dictionary). We suggest this older meaning of “transgressions” of some kind is what the Lord meant by the word “sakes” in the phrase, “cursed for your sakes.” In other words, the Lord is saying the land was “cursed for your transgressions” or “because of your transgressions.” He is not saying the land was cursed for your benefit. Moreover, when the Lord speaks of this affliction, “the land cursed for your sakes,” it is preceded by a phrase stressing the iniquity or transgressions of the people, for example, “the wicked he destroyeth,” in Nephi’s statement above.

The Lord reiterated this principle to the Nephites through the message of Samuel the Lamanite: “And behold, a curse shall come upon the land, saith the Lord of Hosts, because of the peoples’ sake [transgression] who are upon the land, yea, because of their wickedness and their abominations” (Hel. 13:17). In the Book of Mormon text, as in older English, the phrase that follows the word “yea” reinforces and enlarges upon the preceding phrase. Thus the Lord is saying that the land shall be cursed “because of the “peoples’ sake [transgression] who are upon the land,” and this transgression was “their wickedness and their abominations.”

The phrase, “cursed is the ground for thy sake,” occurs in the book of Genesis. We suggest that in this Biblical verse the word “sake” should also be defined as “transgression.” The Lord says to Adam: “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake [transgression]; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3:17; see also Gen. 8:21; Deut. 1:37; 3:26; 4:21).

What was the condition of the Book of Mormon lands after they were cursed by the Lord for iniquity? We suggest that some of the most descriptive words and phrases come from Isaiah’s prophecies as recorded in the Book of Mormon. One of the seeming incongruities of the Nephite record is the inclusion by Nephi, Jacob, Abinadi and the Lord of a significant number of chapters of Isaiah—21 out of the 66 chapters recorded in the King James version of the Bible. Moreover, the words of Isaiah occupy 18 of the 55 chapters that comprise the contributions of Nephi and Jacob upon the special and limited small plates of Nephi—the books of First Nephi and Second Nephi. The prophecies of Isaiah were found on the plates of brass obtained by Nephi from Laban when their family left Jerusalem and, understandably, were available to the Nephites. Nephi received a commandment of the Lord that the small plates (the plates containing words from 18 full chapters of Isaiah) should include only the more “precious” parts of “the ministry and the prophecies,” and these items should be written for the “instruction of [their] people”:

Jacob, the brother of Nephi, also understood the purpose of the small plates, and consequently the significance of Isaiah’s prophecies to their people. Thus Jacob includes the prophecies of Isaiah in spite of the inability to “write but a little of [his] words, because of the difficulty of engraving [their] words upon plates”:

We have pondered this question: If the limited small plates were for specific purposes and were also difficult to write upon, why did the Nephite prophets include so many of the prophecies of Isaiah—prophecies Nephi says were “hard for many of [his] people to understand; for they know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews” (2 Ne. 25:1). Nonetheless, Nephi indicates that he includes the words of Isaiah on his record for the benefit of his people and their descendants.

What was the benefit of Isaiah’s prophecies to Nephi’s people to know “concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews”? Isaiah’s predictions, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, cover many topics—from the fate of the people of Jerusalem to prophecies pertaining to the coming of Christ. We suggest, however, that Isaiah’s prophecies also concern others of the house of Israel, such as father Lehi’s descendants, and the conditions which will prevail when they are swept off their lands through the “judgments of God” because of iniquity.

It should be noted that Nephi “likened” the words of Isaiah to his own people:

The word “liken,” especially in older English, means “to represent as like; to compare to.” Thus we suggest that many of Isaiah prophecies directly represent the fate of Lehi’s family, including where Isaiah describes the future cursed condition of the Book of Mormon lands, as well as other lands occupied by the house of Israel such as the land of Jerusalem. And because Isaiah in numerous verses describes the debased condition which would come upon their lands because of their transgressions, his prophecies are as Nephi says, “of great worth” to his people and their descendants. Hopefully these prophecies would serve as a warning and a deterrent from transgressing the commandments of the Lord—transgressions which would ultimately determine the length of their tenure and the quality of their life on the land.

Nephi’s brother Jacob also “likens” or compares the words of Isaiah unto his people because these prophecies directly represent them:

For the benefit of his people, Jacob also includes the lengthy (87 verses) of the allegory of the tame and wild olive tree of Zenos (Jacob 4:13-18; 5:1-77; 6:1-4) on the same few precious plates that Nephi warned should only be used for that which is of greatest worth. In this allegorical prophecy of Zenos the people of Lehi are depicted as one of the branches of the house of Israel that would be separated from the people at Jerusalem and placed in the “nethermost” (lowermost) parts of the Lord’s vineyard (Jacob 5:20-25). Father Lehi’s family was planted in a “good spot of ground” within the vineyard (Jacob 5:24; see also, Jacob 5:38-45; 3 Ne. 10:16-17).

We suggest that a careful reading of these sometimes difficult to understand chapters of the small plates of Nephi leads to the conclusion that an impressive portion of both the prophecies of Isaiah and of Zenos are a revelation concerning the future condition of the “precious lands” of that part of the Lord’s vineyard occupied by Lehi’s descendants and the predicted “cursed” condition that would fall upon these lands because of the iniquity of the people. Thus Nephi and Jacob “liken” Isaiah’s words to their people because many of Isaiah’s prophecies described the future cursed condition of their lands—the condition which would befall them if they transgressed the Lord’s commandments. Mormon in his abridgment also noted the small plates contained prophecies concerning his people that already had been fulfilled, such as the words of Isaiah, and stated that the prophecies contained therein concerned them, and many would come to pass “beyond [his] day”:

After thoughtful analysis we firmly suggest that Isaiah’s prophecies of a cursed land are intended to describe and foretell the status of the Book of Mormon lands, especially from the time of the destruction of the Lamanite and Nephite civilizations until our day. To confirm this observation, we recommend a reading of the books of First and Second Nephi and Jacob with this concept in mind. Understandably, we propose Baja California as the location of these Book of Mormon lands, and as we have noted, Lehi’s family was sent to a “nethermost” or lowermost part of the Lord’s vineyard (Jacob 5:13-14, 19, 38-39, 52). Nephi stressed to his brethren who questioned the meaning of Isaiah’s words: “these things of which are spoken [by Isaiah] are temporal; for thus are the covenants of the Lord with our fathers; and it meaneth us in the days to come, and also all our brethren who are of the house of Israel” (1 Ne. 22:6; see also, all of 1 Ne. 22).