The Monster in the Book of Mormon
In explicating Isaiah 50 and 51, Jacob likens death and hell to a "monster" that God will conquer through the atonement:
O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. 2 Nephi 9:10
O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. 2 Nephi 9:19
For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment. 2 Nephi 9:26a
Why all this talk of a "monster"?
Three times this "monster" is mentioned by Jacob in 2 Nephi 9, describing the victory God has won over it to our deliverance.
The chapter immediately preceding in the Book of Mormon is a quotation from Isaiah 51, containing the following passage:
Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 2 Nephi 8:9-10.
In the only sermon in the Book of Mormon using "monster" as a description of death and hell, Jacob seems to be explicating this somewhat arcane passage from Isaiah, and in such a way that harmonizes with the Oxford Bible Dictionary commentary on the Isaiah verse (51:9).
Once more we have the recall of God's saving activity as the clue to the confident expectation of his continuing power to save. We last met Rahab in 30:7, where Egypt was mocked for its incapacity. That reference is now taken up into a much larger context. The overthrow of Egypt is linked not only with the Exodus, but with the whole act of creation. It is quite impossible to decide whether the "waters of the great deep" refer to primordial chaos or to the waters of the sea in which the Egyptians were drowned; both pictures are present. We have seen that these later chapters of Isaiah stress YHWH's activity as creator; here that is pictured . . . as a victorious struggle against evil monsters. The theme is the same as that of Gen 1: the way in which it is expressed differs greatly. All this is translated in NRSV with past tenses, and that may be inevitable in English. But it is noteworthy that the verbs are participles, as if YHWH is envisaged as continuing to carry out these saving acts. In any case they are seen as a foretaste of the anticipated act of salvation: the pilgrimage to Zion of those who have been ransomed by God. This theme which has run right through the book from 2:2-4 onwards here reaches its climax. Oxford Bible Commentary on Isaiah, p. 476.
Much more could be said under this head, but for now perhaps it is enough to note that Jacob's singular usage of the term "monster" as a description of death and hell, over which God has gained the victory through the atonement, and provided a way for our deliverance, is reflected in Isaiah 51:9-10 in an arcane passage dealing with God's victory over the primeval "monster" Rahab, the dragon; that this is the only time this passage of Isaiah is quoted in the Book of Mormon; that it is quoted in the chapter immediately preceding the "monster" commentary; and that Jacob specifically give us to understand that his sermon is an intended explication of the Isaiah chapter.
All the Best!
--Consiglieri