What is Meant by "Isles of the Sea"?

Since both the words “isle” and “Land” are used in the scriptural record in describing locations in the Book of Mormon, it has led to considerable discussion of what was meant in the case of Jacob’s discussion of their present location to the Nephites congregated in the temple in the city of Nephi around 550 BC.
    In that conference, Jacob, dealing with the Nephites’ concerns about being cast off from Jerusalem and now unknown to the Lord, said to them: “And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20, emphasis added).

During a two-day conference held in the temple in the city of Nephi, Jacob rose and spoke about the Nephites inhabiting an island in the midst of the sea, the place of the Land of Promise which Lehi had been given, and they presently lived

Jacob then goes on to reinforce his statement about being on an island in the midst of the sea, saying, “But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren” (2 Nephi 10:21, emphasis added).
    So what was the meaning of “isles” that Jacob used? Among theorists, the proposed meanings range from the simple meaning of “island” to such diverse meanings from “coastlands,” to “maritime lands,” to “distance lands,” all of which convey very different meanings to the words of Jacob.
    Most theorists discussing their various models of the Land of Promise location, claim the word “isle” as Jacob used it meant either coastlands, distant lands or maritime lands, leading to the conclusion that any land location would suffice for Jacob’s meaning—it did not have to be a specific land meaning, such as an island in the midst of the sea. On the other hand, the word “isle” as just any land, even one that was promised, cannot be supported by the rest of Nephi’s writings in his two books, First Nephi and Second Nephi.
    This is important since Nephi recorded the words Jacob spoke as part of his sacred record, known today as Second Nephi in the Book of Mormon. So how else did Nephi distinguish lands in his writing so we can understand if he meant a difference between “isles” and other main lands. What we find is that in Nephi’s writings (First and Second Nephi), the word “Isle” as used by Jacob in 2 Nephi 10:20, as meaning of some “distant main or maritime land,” would be in conflict with the other uses of the word “land,” in Nephi’s writings.
    Once again, Jacob’s exact words as Nephi recorded them and Joseph Smith translated them were: “the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20, emphasis added). For those who do not think the word “isle” meant “island,” as we would use it today, but meant “land” in the sense of areas such as Mesoamerica or the Heartland, or the Great Lakes, or the coastal shore along the Gulf of Mexico, Florida or Baja California, etc., should keep in mind Nephi’s use of the word of such areas.
    “But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations” (2 Nephi 27:1).
    Clearly, the word “land” to Nephi meant the definition of “land” as used in the area in which Joseph Smith grew up and lived, and given in the 1828 dictionary, which was: “the earth, or the solid matter which constitutes the fixed part of the surface of the globe, in distinction from the sea or other waters; any portion of the solid part of the globe, whether a kingdom or country, or a particular region; any small portion of the superficial (surface); any portion of the surface of the earth or ground; ground, soil.”

There is a big different between the term “land” and the term "isles" or islands. They cannot be interchanged—each has a separate meaning

Thus, the word “land,” as used by Nephi and translated by Joseph Smith, and known to the latter in the area of his birth and life, meant “any and all solid matter of the earth, as opposed to seas or other waters.” Thus, any solid area of the earth, from a continent to an island could be called “land.”
    On the other hand, the word “isle,” had a very different meaning. In 1828, that word had a singular meaning, which was: “A tract of land surrounded by water, or a detached portion of land embosomed in the ocean, in a lake or river.” In 1828, an island would have been considered a large to small area of land surrounded by the sea, such as the South Pacific Islands, the Islands of the Caribbean, or the Hawaiian Islands; or within a lake, such as Manitoulin Island, Isle Royale, and Drummond Island in the Great Lakes, Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua, or Kelleys Island in Ohio or Apostle Islands in Wisconsin; or in a river, such as Montreal Island in the St. Lawrence River, or Davis Island in the Mississippi River, or Grand Island in the Niagara River, or Manhattan Island in the Hudson and East rivers.
    It is clear that the word “isle” had a very different meaning to Joseph Smith, who translated the “Reformed Egyptian word used by Nephi, as “isle,” since the word “island” was not in use in 1828, for according to the 1828 dictionary, the word “island,” was: “an absurd compound of isle and land, that is, land-in-water land, or ieland-land. There is no such legitimate word in English…The genuine word always used in discourse is our native word,” which was “isle.”
    In addition, in first and second Nephi, the term “isles” is found 12 times: 10 in “isles of the sea,” once in “O isles,” and once in “the isles.” Thus, “isles” of the sea is distinctly different than coastland, maritime land, or distant land.

The word “isle” is from the word “salo,” which meant “that which is in the sea,” from an ablative of “salum” meaning “the open sea.” It should also be kept in mind that in the Old Testament times, only Arvad (Genesis 10:18; 1 Chronicles :16; Ezekiel 27:8,11), and Tyre (an island city off the coast of present day Lebanon) were the main islands basically known to Israel. These were major islands, and though small, were prominent in Biblical times. In addition, there is mention of Kittim or Chittim, a settlement in present-day Larnaca on the west coast of the island of Cyprus (Genersis 10:4 and 1 Chronicles 1:7—“sons of Javan” were those of Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim and Dodanim or Rodabun). There were also the many Greek islands, such as Chios, and the major British Isles. Everything else was mainland, and is so mentioned as “land” and not “isles” in the Biblical narrative.
    In fact, most everywhere the King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew, "Iyai HaYam," as “isles of the sea,” except in Isaiah, where it is rendered “coastlands of the sea,” suggesting that term in Isaiah meant “isles of the sea” as it is rendered everywhere else.
    There are other uses of “isles” in Nephi’s writings, such as when the Lord states: “The isles shall wait upon me” (2 Nephi 8:5), and also “theyh shall be gathered in fro their long dispersion,from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth” (2 Nephi 10:8) and “I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea…even upon all the nations of the earth” (2 Nephi 29:7), showing a separation of men from the nations of the earth and those upon the isles of the sea.
    After all, common sense should tell anyone that the term “isles of the sea” is different from the “lands of the earth.” Do we ever read or hear anywhere someone say “Lands of the sea” or “Lands on the sea” or “Lands in the sea”? “Isles of the sea” has a specific meaning, now and in the past. We should also keep in mind that when the Lord is talking in the Bible, he is aware of the Earth in a completely different sense that are we.

Isles of the South Pacific Ocean

He knows the end from the beginning, knows where His people will be, and knew without question, long before the fact, that in the last days, the many islands, in addition to the known continents and lands, would be inhabited by people. And many of those people would be original “cast offs” from the House of Israel. After all, we know that some Nephites sailed from the Land of Promise in Hagoth’s ships and went where no one knew—and the only course open to them would have been West, along the routes that would take them to Polynesia, a land of more than 10,000 islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean.
    Thus, when the Lord spoke of “it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance” He is telling us He knows where His people would be, scattered all over the face of the earth, upon the continents, upon foreign lands, and upon the islands in the sea.
    Thus, it cannot be said that when Jacob claimed the Nephites and the Land of Promise was upon an isle of the sea, that it meant anything other than what it states—they were upon an isle in the sea.