I have a great respect and love for the Prophet Joseph Smith. I testify that he is the Lord's latter day Prophet and Seer of the restoration of the Lord's Church and gospel to the earth in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Great Millennial Day to follow. One of my 2nd great grandfathers did personally know the Prophet Joseph Smith and he did even withness the prophet Joseph receiving a great vision of grand importance from the powers of heaven. Joseph Smith did translate the scriptural record known as the Book of Mormon by the inspiration and powers of God given to him to do so from ancient metal golden plates. These were given to him by an angel of God named Moroni. I know the Book of Mormon is a true scriptural record containing the word of God. Further, through Joseph Smith the priesthood of God and the keys thereof have been restored to the earth by the visitations and the ministering of angels, whereby the Church of Jesus Christ has gone forth to the world; blessing all those who come unto Christ and join the his church to the end that they do strive to live by God's laws, statutes and ordinances thereof, that they may obtain Eternal Life and Exaltation in the Kingdom of God. Even in death does the prophet Joseph Smith, the empowered head of the dispensation of the fulness of times, continue to guide and direct the affairs of the Latter day Church as he lives on in the Paradise of the Lord and continues to perform his duties as God's chosen prophet. And I bear testimony of this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

That being said, there are many, many more accolades that may be place upon Joseph Smith and what he has done and does do by his fellow man in the service of God. Yet, I do not believe that the humility of the man Joseph Smith would cherish any such undeserved honor that some might innovate to place upon him in a manner of exaggeration or even worse, attributing to him that which does belong to him and perhaps to another. Concerning this, I do fear that some zealous scholars and their 'followers' have placed upon Brother Joseph that which is not his, and further, that which he would not want to be placed upon himself. I name but two such here.

The first has come out of Jewish tradition and the design of Rabbinical innovation, to which some LDS Scholars have looked to identify Joseph Smith together with. Concerning the Messiah, we know and believe that he is Jesus Christ who in the meridian of time did perform that part of his mission of coming to earth to take upon himself the sins of the world and to suffer and die for mankind. We also believe and know that Jesus Christ will come again to earth in power and glory to rule and reign on earth as our LORD and KING. This is supported with much scriptural evidence that has set out the suffering of the atoning Savior Jesus Christ and of the Coming Glorious Lord and King.

Many of these are also such scriptures that are also used by the 'Jews' to support their belief in their 'coming' Messiah(s). But certain designing Rabbis have 'imagined' and divided the Messiah into two; one as the suffering Messiah and the scriptures thereof, who they have attributed to being the 'Messiah ben Joseph' — 'Messiah ben Ephraim.' And as to those references to a coming glorious and powerful Messiah, they have attributed such as being their Messiah ben David. Sadly a number of LDS scholars have jumped upon the concept of there being a Messiah ben Joseph / Messiah ben Ephraim, and they have attempted in a number of fashions to attribute this to being the latter day Prophet Joseph Smith who is scripturally known to be a descendant of Joseph of Egypt and of being 'a pure Ephraimite.' This is contrary to the Book of Mormon scripture that states, "... there is save one Messiah spoken of by the prophets..." and that there should be not any other Messiah come 'save it should be a false Messiah' (2 Nephi 25:18). And thus in their zeal to place upon Joseph Smith something that IS NOT his, they have attempted to raise him up, but they have potentially brought a dishonor upon his name.

This 'zeal' to make Joseph Smith to be more than what he is, as though that which he is, is not great enough, has also, I fear, flooded over into some scholars and their 'followers' attributing to Joseph Smith what is not his relative to D&C 113. This is somewhat in a detailed analysis addressed here in this presentation set out here below for consideration upon this matter. ~ drh

John


14:6

The Way

The Path,
Straight
& Narrow

The Truth

ROD of Iron
The WORD
Of GOD

The Life

The Tree
of Life

1 Nephi
15:23-24

Isaiah 11 — D&C 113
A Full Scriptural Analysis
~ A Study in Who Says So ~

conducted by Don R. Hender

Isaiah Chapter 11

2 Nephi Chapter21
The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—The knowledge about God will cover the earth in the Millennium—The Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel——Compare 2 Nephi 21. The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—The knowledge of God will cover the earth in the Millennium—The Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559–545 B.C. Stem of Jesse (Christ) shall judge in righteousness—The knowledge of God shall cover the earth in the Millennium—The Lord shall raise an ensign and gather Israel——Compare 2 Nephi 21.
(Old Testament | Isaiah 11:Heading) Stem of Jesse (Christ) shall judge in righteousness—The knowledge of God shall cover the earth in the Millennium—The Lord shall raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559–545 B.C. (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 21:Heading) (Old Testament | Isaiah 11:Heading)
1 aAnd there shall come forth a brod out of the cstem of dJesse, and a eBranch shall grow out of his roots:

[In reading for comprehension and understanding some rudimentry sentence struture is required. The subject/noun/topic of the sentence here is 'rod'. And that is to what the pronouns of the next 5 verses refer back to as their antesedent = 'rod'. The prepositional phrase of 'of the stem' and 'of Jesse' but further define the subject 'rod' but they do not replace 'rod' as the 'subject' being spoken of.]

1 aAnd there shall bcome forth a rod out of the cstem of Jesse, and a dbranch shall grow out of his roots.  1a [And] 2 Ne. 21:1 (1–16); JS—H 1:40.
 1b [rod] Ps. 110:2; D&C 113:3 (1–6).
 1c [stem] D&C 113:1 (1–2). TG Jesus Christ, Messiah; Jesus Christ, Prophecies about.
 1d [Jesse] Jesse was the father of David; reference is made to the royal Davidic genealogical line in which Jesus is eventually born. Micah 5:2; Heb. 7:14. TG Jesus Christ, Davidic Descent of.
 1e [Branch] Jer. 23:5.
 1a [And] Isa. 11:1 (1–16).
 1b [Come] Isa. 53:2; Rev. 5:5.
 1c [Stem of Jesse] D&C 113:2 (1–2).
 1d [Branch] TG Jesus Christ, Davidic Descent of.
Isaiah 11 was written upon the plates of brass and transcribed from that souce upon the Book of Mormon small plates by the hand of Nephi. Joseph Smith translanted such and also likely compared his translation to the Bible for accuracy. By the work of Orson Pratt, the Book of Mormon text was divided into 'scriptural' chapters and verses and in the case of these Isaiah related chapters, Orson Pratt followed for the most part the divisions as such of the King James Bible. As for how it was divided in the 1830 Edition of the Book of Mormon, from Isaiah 6 to Isaiah 12 was included in one chapter, chapter IX. And the verses of Isaiah 11 were contained but 2 paragraphs, with verses 1-9 in the first paragraph and verses 10-16 in the second. This is as paragraphed marked by the Bible, thus likely either the King James Bible was consulted or the was such a natural brake in the engravings of the plates of brass text.

[And]

The first reference is merely that each text, Isaiah 11 and 2 Nephi 21 are crossreferencing that they are but the 'same' textual material as the other (1a & 1a). But in addition the Bible Isaiah 1a reference also further references Joseph Smith Hitory 1:40:

    "In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when "they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people," but soon would come." ~ Pearl of Great Price | JS-History 1:40

    "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
    "And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."     ~ New Testament | Acts 3:22-23)

Since the Joseph Smith History verse further mentioned the two verses of Acts, for clarification these two verses are included here also. It seems that the reference to the prophet being Christ in the JS-H is but clarifying who those verses are speaking of and there really is no such direct clarification as to who is being spoken of in Isaiah 11 except that is is about to be fulfilled relative to the times that the angel cited that scripture to the prophet Joseph Smith in 1823. This would seem to be speaking of the events of the last days up to and including the Millennial Day of the Lord.

[come]

In order of reading the verse, 2 Nephi 21 references the word [come] with Isaiah 53:2 and revelation 5:5 which are given next:

    "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." Isaiah 53:2

    "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." Revelation 5:5

Both of these verse do confirm that it is Jesus Christ who is to 'come' forth and is the topic of this verse. The Isaiah verse speaks of him as a 'tender plant' and as a 'root' out of a dry ground such as the house of David was relative to being any longer the recognized King of Judah, that is the house of David has stood barren for some hundreds of years. That he had no 'comeliness' or 'beauty,' this had been interpretated not as to human good looks, but as to such 'glory' that would seem to be about a divine entity. Jesus was in appearance as a man.

The Revelation verse is informative in that it states that the 'Root of David' [Jesus Christ] had prevailed to open the book [of life] and to loose the seven seals thereof. Certainly Jesus has won the victory in fulfilling his sacrificial mission of redemption and atonement. And thus he held the full power and authorty to open the book and loose the seals to let the coming events of prophecy commence and be futher fulfilled. Now as to the 'root of David/Jesse' being but Jesus Christ, the Lord himself has reported thus:

    "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." ~ Rev. 22:16 (6-16)

[rod]

The Isaiah text is he only one that references the [rod] in its verse 1, yet according to the sentence noun-topic structure it is the 'rod out of the stem of Jesse' that is going to be spoken about in verses 1-5, though some content that beyond the proper sentence topic structure they separate the 'rod' out from being the topic addressed and apply to it another interpretation that the rest of the verses would set it out to be are Psalm 110:2, but verses 1-6 ought to be includes and taken from the Kings James Bible to given its full contextual basis, which some otherwise attempt to skirt around. And then D&C 113:3 (1-6) is also given and again the broader contextual verses are helpful. They follow one at a time:

    "THE LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
    "The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
    "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
    "The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
    "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
    "He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries."     ~ Old Testament | Psalms 110:1 - 6

It is very important to obtain an understanding of the context of this scripture. It is a very frequent used scripture by Jesus and his diciples in the New Testament Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42; Acts 2:34; Heb. 1:13. In Jesus' reference he points out that David knew that Jehovah/Jesus, Daniel's 'Lord' hand a 'LORD' Elohim above him. This was in the context of Jesus discussion his Father who was witness of him as the Son of God. Thus when the second verse states "The LORD shall send the rod ...", it is speaking of Elohim sending 'Jesus' the 'rod'. The rest of the verses support that it is the relationship between Jehovah/Jesus and Elohim that is being spoken of here from speaking of the enemies of thy footstool, to speaking of Elohim having sworth that 'Thou' art a priest after the order of Melchizedek, to He, the Lord, being the judge among the heathen. The provided heading substantiates it being A Messianic Pslam that Christ shall sit on the 'LORD's' right hand and that he shall be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. To attemp to single out the word 'rod' here and make it to be any thing but a reference to Jesus Christ is a fruitless attempt and a misinterpretation of scripture.

    Q: "WHO is the Stem of Jesse [the Rod or Branch] spoken of in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th verses of the 11th chapter of Isaiah?
    A: "Verily thus saith the Lord: It is Christ.

    Q: "What [Who] is the rod [and/or Branch] spoken of in the first verse of the 11th chapter of Isaiah, that should come of the Stem of Jesse?
    A: "Behold, thus saith the Lord: It is a servant in the hands of Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph, on whom there is laid much power.

    Q: "What is the root of Jesse spoken of in the 10th verse of the 11th chapter?
    A: "Behold, thus saith the Lord, it is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days."     ~ Doctrine and Covenants | Section 113:1-6

Poorly Framed Questions & Much Conjecture Muddles

It is not known who it is that asks these first three question, but there has been some time and a falling out of the unfaithful back in Ohio with the last revelation given there as of July 23, 1837. Joseph has now come to Missouri in Far West where in Missouri the saints have not had the best of times either. But they are anxious to have the prophet amongst them. Now Isaiah 11 was quoted with a group of scriptures by the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith back in 1823. And Moroni stated that these things were about to be fulfilled. Thus it seems that some of the saints have had some question relative to these scriptures, particulary Isaiah 11. Now it is not recorded or know known who asked the questions concerning Isaiah 11, or just what their interest was or even to what intent the quesions were asked. But Joseph Smith does give some inspired answers to those questions.

Concerning the sequence of questions and answers relative to Isaiah 11, the first and second questions are poorly asked and it has falsely misled into inapropriate interpretaions and presumptions concerning the answers to these three Isaiah questions. For example, to ask, 'Who is the Stem of Jesse spoken of in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th verses?' is a falsely based question. 'The Stem of Jesse' IS NOT the subject of the first five verses nor do the following pronouns and their antesedent relate to the objects of the prepositional phrases of 'of the stem' or 'of Jesse'. The antesedent of all the following 'he' and 'his' pronouns refer back to the subject of the sentence which is the noun 'rod'. The sentence loosely diagrammed is: 

 
   Rod | shall come forth
                 \
                  \out of (from) the stem
                                        \
                                         \of Jesse
Here clearly the subject of the sentence is rod with 'out of or from the stem' and 'of Jesse' being modifying prepositional phrases attached to the verb.

Looking at the 'New King James Version may help: 

"There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
                    And a Branch shall grow out of his roots." Isaiah 11:1 NKJV

Thus with the Rod paralleled with the Branch, it is clearly seen that the Branch and Rod are the subjects and further that they can be none other than Jesus Christ who is growing or coming forth out of the trunk, root or 'stem' of Jesse.

And then the parallel sentence is diagrammed: 

            Branch | shall grow
                            \
                             \out of his roots (Jesse's roots)
Who else but Jesus Christ has come from the barren stumps of the house of David to come forth to lay claim as heir of David's throne? The famed 'Branch', 'Shoot', or 'Rod' that is to come, the Messiah from the house of David of the family of Jesse is certainly none other than Jesus Christ. And yes, the question was poorly framed around the contents of prepositional phrases though the answer was true to the intent thereof.

The 5 verses do not speak 'of The Stem of Jesse' as that IS NOT the subject of the matter at all. The Subject of the two parallel scriptural sentences is the 'Rod' and/or the 'Branch' being in parallel one and the same subject. And just what 'of the stem of Jesse' is, is but a couple of linked prepositional phrases that reference back to the the verbal origin of the subject 'Rod' or 'Branch'. The proper question concerning 'WHO' was being spoken of in the first 5 verses of Isaiah 11 should have been: "Who is the Rod, the Branch that shall come or shall grow from the stem of Jesse spoken of in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th verses of the 11th chapter of Isaiah?

The Spirit of Revelation, rather than attempting to give a lecture on sentence structure and properly identifying of the subject, verb and prepasitional phrases; the inspiration of the Lord spoke to the appearant intent of the question and answered, "Verily thus saith the Lord: It is Christ." "That is, the 'person' spoken of as the 'Rod or Branch' that shall come or shall grow from out of the stem of Jesse spoken of in the first 5 verses is Jesus Christ." But of course, any English teacher worth their salt will tell you that the 'person' or subject of that first verse of Isaiah 11:1 is that of the 'rod and/or Branch.'

And with that most basic understanding of the sentence structure of identifying the subject and topic of the matter in order to facilitate proper conprehension and understanding, the next question and its following answer ought to have been that of a great 'revelation' concerning the person of the 'Rod' or 'Branch' who had just previously been identified as being the Christ, even Jesus Christ. But the Lord is not always so ready to so easily give out his answers to what has been the 'hidden mysteries' of the gospel over the ages.

So when next asked question was but that of a redundant matter so poorly phrased as "What (rather than Who) is the rod spoken of in the first verse of the 11th chapter of Isaiah, that should come of the Stem of Jesse?" The spirit of revelation then answers that confusing reduncant question with additional information but in a manner of its own 'mind bending' answer, that while it held the truth in it, it would completely defuse the perhaps purposed or intentional scheme of twisted logic of which the question was asked. But certainly it was not answered in a manner that would untangle the mystering to those who so plainly misunderstood the first matter at hand.

That is, Jehoshua, Jehovah the Redeemer, and his messengers are well skilled in speaking of Jesus, himself, in the third person. All during the Old Testament when Jehovah spoke in the stead of the Father of Spirits, he would speak of His Only Begotten Son or the Messiah or Redeemer who was to come in the third person. He would speak of his Father as his representative in the first person and to himself as the Savior in the third person. Thus in this answer the spirit speaks of Christ holding himself in his own hands. Who hasn't taken their life into their own hands? But here, so that the answer would not be the answer to a hidden mystery, that would further reveal much about Jesus Christ before its time, the 'figure of speech was used. Yet the answer indeed was revealing as to just what was the ancestry of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Rod and Branch that had come forth and grew out of the seemingly 'barren' stump or root of Jesse, the house of David.

The very simple answer was that Jesus Christ, being the Only Begotten Son of God, was only 'partly' a descendant of man through his mother Mary. Mary, like her earthly husband Joseph, was of the house of David, which most people consider to be of the ancestry of Judah, but that is only by blood line. According to the laws of God Jesus lineal ancestry according to the 'birthright' by which he fulfilled all righteousness was that he was from that Ephrathite Jesse who actually was of the tribe of Ephraim because Boaz was but the surrogate father of Obed, he raising up seed to the dead to Mahlon and Elimelech the Ephrathite heirs of the 'birthright' blessing of Ephraim (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Ruth 4:5, 10). Elimelech's ancestry would have been through Joshua/Jehoshua and Nun and then thence back to Ephraim, Joseph and Jacob and the 'birthright father' til Adam. Thus without any mention of the 'house of Judah' or of David who in the days of his wickedness selected Judah over Israel, the only ancestral house that was even named in D&C 113:4 was that of the house of Joseph. Jesus was therefore the heir of the birthright of the priesthood's earthly right was to be of the house Ephraim and Joseph (see Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph).

[stem] of [Jesse] or [stem of Jesse]

This by which has only become a capitalized proper name as Stem of Jesse due to a poorly framed question is not but a part of two prepositional phrases that did modify a verb phrase as a part of the language sentence structure. Already explained above, it is but seen as a capitalized name phrase in the ill formed question that bred it. It ought to seem so clear now. There was no 'Stem of Jesse' about it other than that the Rod or Branch would grow and come out of the barren 'trunk' of the ancestral Jesse, that Ephrathite of Bethlehem. But we will still go through the motions of looking at and analyzing the information presented in them.

The 'stem of Jesse' is nothing more that a modifying prepositional phrase. It speaks to that who is descended from Jesse. How it ever became thought of as a proper name and a created noun phrase out of two prepositional phrases used to modify a verb was due to two malformed questions in D&C 113:1 & 3 concerning the two prepositional phrases 'of the stem' and 'of Jesse.' There is no person who is the 'Stem of Jesse' but what was formed in error and mercifully answer according to the preceived intent of the question rather than according as to how poorly it was formed and did not properly make any sense according to the proper comprehension of the grammar of the English language. The only cross reference to is from the Book of Mormon where is is there cited as 'stem of Jesse' is to where it was first malformed in D&C113:1-2.

A number of 'innovating scholars' have turned the source of its consequential effect into creating an unfortunate scriptural identity for the Prophet Joseph Smith beyond that which the already illustrious latter day Prophet and descendant of Joseph of Egypt needs.

[Branch]

The name 'Branch' is a propher reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in a number of places in the scriptures. That 2 Nephi 21:1 does not capitalize it even in its latest update of the Book of Mormon as does Isaiah 11:1 is a shame because it is a part of the scripturally formed parallel phrase common in ancient scripture that parallels the name 'Rod' and the name of 'Branch' in the two sentence phrases of those two scriptural references. Thankfully the latest New King James Version has both capitalized the word Rod and Branch in recognition to the fact that both subjects are names that reference Jesus Christ in parallel and ought to be therefore capitalized.

    "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots." ~ Isaiah 11:1 NKJV

Perhap diagramming the parallel sentence structure as roughly done above would help to see and understand and properly comprehend what the scriptural verse does say as well as what it does not say.

    "AND there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:" ~ Old Testament | Isaiah 11:1

    "¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." ~ Old Testament | Jeremiah 23:5

    "¶ In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land." ~ Old Testament | Jeremiah 33:15

    "Hear now, O Joshua [Jehoshua] the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH." ~ Old Testament | Zechariah 3:8

    "And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:" ~ Old Testament | Zechariah 6:12

The Question Asked Who Is Spoken of in Verses 1-5?
~ The Three Question of D&C 113 Concerning Isaiah 11 ~

And the answer was clearly given that it was Christ. Yet many who seek to innovate and make a name for themselves jump right past the answer given by the Lord and make the answer to enve this first question to be Joseph Smith. Is there little wonder why a number of our critics accuse us of putting Joseph Smith into the place of the Messiah, that we have elevated Joseph Smith to the level of Jesus Christ himself? And they seem to have some solid reasoning to ask why it is that we worship Joseph Smith?

The facts are that the Church does not know who it was that asked the question of 'Who is the Stem of Jesse spoken of in the 1st, 2nd, 3d, 4th and 5th verses of the 11th chapter of Isaiah?' But it certainly is a poorly formed question as 'the stem of Jesse' IS NOT the subject of the parallelism of the first verse. It is the Rod and the Branch, and that is who is spoken of in verses 1-5. 'Out of (or 'from') the stem of Jesse' is but a pair of verb motifying prepositional phrases and ought not have logically even been a part of a properly formed question of, 'Who is spoken of in verses 1-5?'

And from that beginning the flying presumptions and the ignoring of the reality of the matter at hand get completely derailed by the attempt of innovating scholars attempting to insert the prophet Joseph Smith into various scriptures here and there even though it ought to be obvious that he just does not fit. The Prophet Joseph Smith has enough honor of fame the is real that is placed on him as the Prophet of the latter-day restoration, the head of the despensation of the fullness of times, the translator of the Book of Mormon, the Lord's first Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many, many more additional grand positions to his credit without having to further fabricate unsubstantiated, poorly conceived and out right mis-fitted tributes to his name that just do not gel.

The fact is Jesus Christ is the Rod, the Branch, who is spoken of in verses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the 11th chapter of Isaiah 11. And the second fact is that with the proper framing of the first question, the second question, which is also poorly framed and formed, is also already partially and redundantly answered.

In that second question, it NOT 'What' but 'Who is the rod. And that is, that person is Jesus Christ. And the second answer gives further revelation information concerning Jesus Christ and not Joseph Smith that is quite ground breaking in and of itself regardless of how a person subjectively desiphers the response.

Jesus Christ is the 'servant' of all mankind who has volunteered in the exercise of his own agency to take his life into his own hands to be the Savior of the children of God, his brothers and sisters. He it is that is partley the Only Begotten Son of God and partley a descendant of Jesse, as well as 'lineally' of Ephraim, or that is in both case of the house of Joseph, on whom there is lais much power; even such power of the creation of worlds, the forming of temporal life, of being our God Jehovah of the Old Testament, our Lord and Savior of the New Testament, our reigning King David of the Millennial Day and finally our Final Judge. I'd say that that consists of 'much power' that the Father had empower his chosen, anointed, consecrated and ordained Firstborn Son in the spirit with. Why put or push Joseph Smith into this position?

Certainly Joseph Smith does fit into the answer of the their question which the information applies to who is the root of Jesse there, but that answer seems to allow for additional persons as well, though certainly Joseph Smith would be one of the major players in those consideration of what follows in the verses from 10 on of Isaiah chapter 11. But even then there is that which the scriptures state concerning the 'root of David' that also places an identity of the 'root' as being associated with Christ as well.

In the truth of the matter, it is difficult in considering the proper sentence struture of the verses of chapter 11 of Isaiah to 'remove' Jesus Christ out of Isaiah 11, and therefore even more difficult to move Joseph Smith into the matter when the who of it is diagrammed properly for grammetically correct comprehension and reading as to subject and pronoun antecedent application as well as modifying prepositional phrases of the verbs of Isaiah 11:1 and so forth. And the 'grammatically' correct world of proper English is watching what the 'Mormon scholars' are attempting to innovate and make of prepositional phrases into the subject and ignoring such ancient scriptural features as paralleliams.

2 And the aspirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of bwisdom and cunderstanding, the spirit of dcounsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not ajudge bafter the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness shall ahe bjudge the poor, and creprove with equity for the dmeek of the earth: and he shall esmite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the fbreath of his lips shall he gslay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the agirdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his breins. 		2 And the aSpirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of bwisdom and cunderstanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not ajudge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
4 But with arighteousness shall he bjudge the poor, and reprove with equity for the cmeek of the earth; and he shall dsmite the earth with the erod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And arighteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 		Here we look for agreement that it is Jesus Christ who is being spoken of in all these five verses. Though it says Spirit of the Lord, this would be understandably the Holy Ghost. Wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge and even the 'fear of the Lord' in that he is still honoring his Father. Certainly Jesus would have judgment without being a respector of persons. He judges in righteousness the poor, reporves with equity for the meek, smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he does slay the wicked. He wears the girdle of righteousness and faithfullness in his reins, meaning he rules. These apply to Jesus and his responsibilities. Each he/his relates to the Rod and Branch names that refer to Jesus Christ.

The Millennial Day

There seems very little to be concerned over verses 6-9. The are quite simple, straight forward and plain to be understood that is the the Millennium that is being spoken of.

6 The awolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of athe asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the bcockatrice’ den.
9 They shall not ahurt nor bdestroy in all my holy cmountain: for the dearth shall be full of the eknowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 		6 The awolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.
9 They shall anot hurt nor bdestroy in all my holy mountain, for the cearth shall be full of the dknowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

[root of Jesse]

Scripturally the phrase, person of thing, 'root of Jesse' is given four times and they all relate to the 'one' it was used by Isaiah the prophet. They are in Isaiah 11:10 and in the Book of Mormon as 2 Nephi 21:10, which is but that of the same redition of Isaiah quoted from Isaiah of the same reference. There there is D&C 113:5, which but asked the question of 'What' is the 'root of Jesse' spoken of in Isaiah 11:10; again referencing the same statement of Isaiah. And finally there is Romans 15:12, where the apostle Paul again references what it was the Isaiah said concerning a 'root of Jesse.' And thus all four come from the one time in spirit where Isaiah used the term 'root of Jesse.' And in all reality the subject of discussion is the 'root' and 'of Jesse' is but a prepositional phrase further modifying or further delimiting the 'root.' Since Paul's statement goes beyond just stating that Isaiah said it or asking what was the 'root of Jesse' that Isaiah stated, which real does not further the answer of the question in and of itself; we will begin by quoting apostle Pauls reference to it which does seem to go beyond just restating it or asking about it.

    "And again, Esaias [Isaiah] saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust." ~ New Testament | Romans 15:12

That verse does reference the root of Jesse to the Topical Guide [TG] to the Scriptures under the topic 'Jesus Christ, Davidic Descent of.' Isaiah 11:10 references the root of Jesse to D&C 113:5, where it asks 'What is the root of Jesse ...', and also Revelation 5:5 given next with another scripture that that reference also refers to, being Revelation 22:16 (6-16).

    "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." ~ Revelation 5:5

    "And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
    "Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
    "And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
    "Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
    "And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
    "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
    "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
    "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
    "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
    "For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
    "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."     ~ Revelation 22:16 (6-16)

Thus to this point the string of scriptural reference seems to equate the 'root of Jesse' with the 'root of David' and the Davidic decent of Jesus Christ. And the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 21:10 references the 'root of Jesus' to Romans 15:12 and D&C 113:5 (5-6), and we are back to where we began. And D&C 113:5 references it right back to 2 Nephi 21:10 (10-12) and again we are back again to where we are now at. And thus we are at the point that to identify the 'root of Jesse' with anything but the Davidic descent of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ himself, we must lean to 'more modern revelation' or definition beyond merely the scriptural sources that further defines what the 'ensign' is that the 'root of Jesse' stand for.

Below in the third column it does refer to addresses by President Gordon B. Hinkley and apostle Jeffery R. Holland concerning the identification of the 'ensign.' From their statements it may be deduced that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as represented by its faithful members stand as an ensign to the world. In this sense Joseph Smith and many others as well would qualify as being that 'root of Jesse' being spoken of.

But that the qualifications stated in direct answer to the question as stated 'by the Lord, "... it is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days." These fruther 'qualifying' delimiters would certainly limit it to one such as Joseph Smith, and there would still seem to be others; BUT does it really disqualify Jesus Christ? (see Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph).

10 ¶And in athat day there shall be a broot of Jesse, which shall stand for an censign of the people; dto it shall the eGentiles seek: and his frest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the asecond time to brecover the cremnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the dislands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an aensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not aenvy bJudah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall afly upon the bshoulders of the Philistines toward the west; cthey shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the Lord shall utterly adestroy the tongue of the bEgyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
16 And there shall be aan bhighway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. 		10 And in that day there shall be a aroot of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the bGentiles seek; and his crest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the asecond time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from bAssyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from cShinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an aensign for the nations, and shall assemble the boutcasts of Israel, and cgather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The aenvy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not benvy cJudah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the aPhilistines towards the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon bEdom and cMoab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the Lord shall utterly adestroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over bdry shod.
16 And there shall be a ahighway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. 		The 'root of Jesse' of verse 10, IS NOT 'THE root of Jesse' but 'a root of Jesse.' This leaves room for there to be more than one 'root of Jesse.' So whether 'they' who are identified as being our 'root of Jesse' is not a limited question as such, whether it be Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, of any one of the many members of the Chruch that qualify as of the house of Isreal.
   WHAT rather seems to be of question here so: "Who or even what is to 'stand for an ensign of the people;' to it shall the Gentles seek:?" The pronoun it would seem to identify the 'ensign' as a 'thing' and not a person, yet the person does seem to some how stand 'for an ensign.'
   As late as 2003 October Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President/Prophet Gordon B. Hinkley stated: "I believe and testify that it is the mission of this Church to stand as an ensign to the nations and a light to the world." He further stated, "If we are to [be] an ensign to the nations and a light to the world, we must take on more of the luster of the life of Christ."
   In an address apostle Jeffery R. Holland references Ensign Peak and that 'the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains' and 'he shall set up an ensign for the nations.' Elder Holland also points out that 'Elder Heber C. Kimball produced a yellow bandana, which President Brigham Young tied to a walking stick of Elder Willard Richards. And then President Young planted the makeshift flag on Ensign Peak. Elder Holland also stated to his audience, "You are one of those angelic messengers called from before the foundation of the world to wave the ensign of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world."
1 AND there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his [Jesse's] roots:
2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him [the rod/Branch], the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3 And shall make him [the rod/Branch] of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he [the rod/Branch] shall not judge after the sight of his [the rod/Branch] eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his [the rod/Branch] ears:
4 But with righteousness shall he [the rod/Branch] judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he [the rod/Branch] shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his [the rod/Branch] lips shall he [the rod/Branch] slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his [the rod/Branch] loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his [the rod/Branch] reins." ~ Old Testament | Isaiah 11:1-5)

ver. 21 February 2016