1 Nephi Chapter 21 Overview

The Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles and will free the prisoners—Israel will be gathered with power in the last days—Kings will be their nursing fathers—Compare Isaiah 49. About 588–570 B.C.

My impression of this chapter, in combination with the previous chapter is that it is the prophecy version of the Allegory of the Olive Tree recorded in Jacob chapter five. Not that the allegory isn’t also a prophecy, but it’s a different form of the same prophecy recorded here. Chapter 20 was about the whole house of Israel, and this chapter is more specifically directed to the branches that were broken off. Remember that the reason Nephi is reading these chapters of Isaiah is to “more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer” (1 Nephi 19:23). That and because they are of the house of Israel, and more specifically, they are some of those who were “broken off and [were] driven out…[and] scattered abroad, who are of [the Lord’s] people” (verse 1). So these verses that talk about the Redeemer are specifically addressed to Lehi’s group and others like them (see 1 Nephi 22: 4; 2 Nephi 10: 20–22). And just in case his brethren don’t get the connection, when Nephi finishes reading Isaiah to them he will teach them what it means and how it applies to them.