📒 3 Nephi 22
In the last days, Zion and her stakes will be established, and Israel will be gathered in mercy and tenderness—They will triumph—Compare Isaiah 54. About A.D. 34.
📜 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.
📜 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
📜 9 For this, the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee.
📜 10 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Will the Lord abandon those who makes covenants with him?
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📜 Verse 7: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.”
- Forsaken: Not abandonment, but momentary withdrawal. A divine pause—not a severing. The Lord acknowledges distance, but frames it as brief.
📗 Jeremiah 46
📜 27 ¶ But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
📒 3 Nephi 20
📜 13 And then shall the remnants, which shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, be gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the south and from the north; and they shall be brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them.
- Mercies: Plural and abundant. Not just forgiveness, but active restoration, tenderness, and gathering.
📗 1 Chronicles 16
📜 34 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
📘 Doctrine and Covenants 97
📜 2 Verily, verily I say unto you, blessed are such, for they shall obtain; for I, the Lord, show mercy unto all the meek, and upon all whomsoever I will, that I may be justified when I shall bring them unto judgment.
- Gather: Covenant language. To gather is to reclaim, to restore identity and belonging. This is not passive mercy—it’s movement toward reunion.
📗 Isaiah 13
📜 4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
📚 Articles of Faith
📜 10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
🪶 These verse sets the rhythm: momentary forsaking, followed by overwhelming mercy. A pattern of divine choreography—withdrawal, then embrace.
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Verse 8: “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”
- Hid my face means temporary veiling of divine presence, not final rejection; it signals correction or testing followed by restoration.
- A little wrath limits divine displeasure to a brief episode, emphasizing the transitory nature of judgment.
- Everlasting kindness contrasts the momentary wrath and guarantees enduring, unbroken covenantal love.
📗 Isaiah 54
📜 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
- Redeemer locates the action in an active, saving relationship: the One who rescues remains committed to mercy.
📕 Titus 3
📜 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Verse 9: “For this, the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee.”
📗 Isaiah 54
📜 9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
- Waters of Noah function as a covenantal anchor and an oath-form image of irreversible promise.
📗 Genesis 8
📜 21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
📕 Matthew 24
📜 36 ¶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
🗝📜 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
📜 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
- The Lord’s oath to never flood the earth again is employed as a legal and poetic guarantor: just as floodwaters will not return, so divine wrath will not be perpetual.
📒 Alma 22
📜 22 Yea, and I say unto you that if it were not for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by flood, as were the people in the days of Noah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence, and the sword.
📚 Moses 7
🗝📜 48 And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?
📜 49 And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth? Wilt thou not bless the children of Noah?
🗝📜 50 And it came to pass that Enoch continued his cry unto the Lord, saying: I ask thee, O Lord, in the name of thine Only Begotten, even Jesus Christ, that thou wilt have mercy upon Noah and his seed, that the earth might never more be covered by the floods.
- The verse reframes past cataclysm as precedent for divine restraint and faithful covenant-keeping.
Verse 10: “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
- Mountains depart / hills removed escalate the imagery to cosmic instability to emphasize contrast: even if creation shifts, God’s kindness is immovable.
📗 Isaiah 40
🗝📜 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
📜 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
- Kindness shall not depart restates permanence of divine favor as stronger than the most stable natural features.
📗 Genesis 12
📜 1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
🗝📜 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 📜 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
📗 Psalms 94
📜 14 For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
📕 1 Peter 2
📜 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
📒 2 Nephi 8
📜 3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
📘 Doctrine and Covenants 35
📜 25 And Israel shall be saved in mine own due time; and by the keys which I have given shall they be led, and no more be confounded at all.
📘 Doctrine and Covenants 133
📜 34 Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows.
📚 Abraham 2
📜 10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;
- Covenant of my peace names the relational instrument that secures mercy and reconciliation between God and covenant people.
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Synthesis: covenantal architecture and rhetorical movement
- The passage moves by contrastive escalation: brief forsaking/wrath → sworn guarantees (Noah) → cosmic reversal imagery (mountains) → absolute promise of enduring kindness and a secure covenant of peace.
- The rhetorical logic binds testing and chastening into the covenantal economy; chastening is provisional, mercy is foundational, and oaths (Noah) plus cosmic metaphors serve to reassure the covenant partner that abandonment will not occur.
- Literary and theological readings treat the “desolate woman” or Zion motif here as corporate covenant identity: the promises address a covenant people who may experience barrenness or exile but will be restored and gathered by tender mercy.
Practical thrust for covenant-makers
- Making covenants with God places one inside a relational framework where transient discipline does not equal permanent desertion; the text promises gathering, mercy, and an unbreakable covenant of peace.
- The strongest guarantees offered are both sworn (Noah) and cosmetic: divine kindness outlasts cosmic change, which means covenant security is both legally and metaphysically affirmed.
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