9 Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?10 Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? [2 Nephi 8:9–10]10 Art thou not itwhich hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? [Isaiah 51:9–10]
Isaiah 51:1–8 (2 Nephi 8:1–8) speaks of a general promise of the covenant of Abraham being fulfilled as discussed above. Isaiah now speaks of the two specific places where the covenant people will gather. He speaks first of Zion or America (vv. 9–16, and then of Jerusalem (vv. 17–23). The last two verses (vv. 24–25), Isaiah 52:1–2, are a summation of the Lord’s challenges to both gathering places. The Book of Mormon retains the word “he” for the KJV “it” (vv. 9–10). The KJV adds “in the generations of old” following “as in ancient days” (v. 9). These differences are not significant. In these verses, Isaiah cites acts of strength that the Lord has accomplished in times past as evidence of the Lord’s power to redeem his people in the latter days.