Abstract: Nephi, in composing his psalm (2 Nephi 4:15–35), incorporates a poetic idiom from Psalm 18:10 (2 Samuel 22:11) and Psalm 104:3 to describe his participation in a form of divine travel. This experience constituted a part of the vision in which he saw “the things which [his] father saw” in the latter’s dream of the tree of life (see 1 Nephi 11:1–3; 14:29–30). Nephi’s use of this idiom becomes readily apparent when the range of meaning for the Hebrew word rûaḥ is considered. Nephi’s experience helps our understanding of other scriptural scenes where similar divine travel is described.

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Recent studies have shown that 2 Nephi 4:15–35, what Sidney B. Sperry originally identified as Nephi’s “psalm,”1 relies heavily on the language of the biblical psalms.2 In 2 Nephi 4:25, he states, “And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains.” In making this statement, Nephi poetically referred to the experience he describes in greater depth in 1 Nephi 11:1 (“I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain”) [Page 20]and 1 Nephi 14:30 (“I was carried away in the Spirit”). Nephi’s use of the phrase “upon the wings of his Spirit” reflects a poetic idiom found in Psalm 18:10/2 Samuel 22:11 and Psalm 104:3, ʿal-kanpê-rûaḥ, usually translated “upon the wings of the wind.”

The textual dependency of 2 Nephi 4:25 on Psalm 18:10/2 Samuel 22:11 and Psalm 104:3 becomes especially clear when the polysemy of Hebrew rûaḥ as both “wind” and “spirit” is considered. Moreover, when Nephi’s use of the phrase “upon the wings of his Spirit” is analyzed in the context of what Nephi experiences with “the Spirit of the Lord” in 1 Nephi 11 and in the broader contexts of theophanies and iconography in ancient Israel,