The Setting: Jacob's discourse covers two days. At the end of the first day he closed his sermon with a reference to the subject of this discourse, the "righteous branch." Just as his discourse on the atonement was an elaboration of the "future history" theme of the Isaiah passages, so this discourse also deals with the future, but a future specifically for the future of his audience. While thematically the future of the house of Israel is found in Isaiah, the important part of Isaiah for Nephi and Jacob is their very close reading of Isaiah as they interpret it to refer to the branch of Israel in the New World.