Book of Mormon Commentary ~ I Nephi Chapter 1

by Don R. Hender

The Book of Mormon begins with the personal writings of Nephi. Mormon had abridged the records of the Large Plates of Nephi and the 'Plates of Lehi', which he began with and had titled the 'Book of Lehi'. What details of the history of Lehi's life Mormon had abridged into that book are gone, for the first 116 pages of that early translation were 'lost' by Martin Harris. And what portion of the Large Plates of Nephi Mormon abridged up to the Book of Mosiah are also lost to us, as the Lord would not allow Joseph to retranslate or continue to translate any of that portion of Mormon's abridgement, which was covered in time by the Small Plates of Nephi. This was due to the designing nature of evil men, who would have altered the 116 pages and used them against the Prophet Joseph Smith if the second translation was not exactly according to the first.
The Lord had anticipated such an event that the first attempt might be foiled by the evil of men, and had provided a backup history for the first portion of the Book of Mormon. It was Nephi's own writings of a 'more precious and religious nature' than merely a history. But it also was an abridgement, Nephi's short record beginning with his reign and ministry, leaving out much of the secular historical detail. Thus one must be careful in drawing conclusions as to passage of time and other such events as seem to be lost in any such condensed abridge account which emphasized only the spiritual.
Nephi was not commanded by the Lord to prepare the 'Small Plates of Nephi' until some time between about 570-560 BC, at the time of the building of the temple like unto Solomon's Temple in the New Promised Land of Nephi (See 2 Nephi 5:28-34). Thus the record of Nephi was a reflective religious history of a much older man in his 40's to 50's remembering days gone by, up to 30-40 years prior. But Nephi did have the 'Large Plates of Nephi' to draw upon, which Nephi had been writing in since they first arrived in the land of promise.

NOTE: Below at the ending of this chapter commentary and notes is a prepared historical background and historical setting which ought to make the events and story of the Book of Mormon, the dealings of Lehis, come to life—Between the Lines of History.

Scriptural Text [& Editorial] Commentary & Explanation Footnotes ~ References ~ JST

THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI
HIS REIGN AND MINISTRY
An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lord warns Lehi to depart out of the land of Jerusalem, because he prophesieth unto the poeple concerning their iniquity and they seek to destory his life. He taketh three days' journey into the wilderness with his family. Nephi taketh his brethren and returneth to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews. The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and depart into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. They come to the large waters. Nephi's brethren rebel against him. He confoundeth them, and buildeth a ship. They call the name of the place Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the promised land, and so forth. This is according to the account of Nephi; or in other words, I, Nephi, wrote this record.
[NOTE: This introduction was part of the original Book of Mormon translation and was therefore written by the hand of either Nephi or one of the Nephite prophets who kept and maintained the records. It is not a modern composition as are the various individual chapter summaries.]

CHAPTER 1
Nephi begins the record of his people—Lehi sees in vision a pillar of fire and reads from a book of prophecy—He praises God, foretells the coming of the Messiah^a, and prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem—He is persecuted by the Jews. [About 600 B.C.]
This chapter summary is a modern composition and was not a part of the translated record. It has been changed from time to time in the various editions of the Book of Mormon and was not part of the original 1830 edition. The original translation was not divided into scriptural verses and many such chapters as there exists today. This has been done since 1830 primarily by the hand and suppervision of the Church appointed Apostle Orson Pratt to aid in the scriptural study of the record. For the most part with a few exceptions, such divisions seem to have maintained the proper meanings and asspects of the original. As a part of this commentary a few such division which seem to have altered the original to have changed the perspective and original meaning and intend are so noted at each particular point of the Book of Mormon text as will be thence indicated. The current rendition of the chapter summaries are mostly the product of Elder Bruce R. McConkie as authorized and approved by the authoritites of the Church.
CHAPTER 1
From 570 to 560 BC, Nephi begins to write his Small Plates of Nephi relegious history as commanded by God (See: 2 Nephi 5:28-34). By the time of this commandment, Nephi had separated himself and his followers from the follows of his rebelous elder brothers, the temple like unto Solomon's has been constructed and Nephi has established his people in the land, teaching them to live a civilized existance with buildings, farming, the caring of herds and other attributes of civilization. This produces an sudden fully developed society in the center of a previously uninhabitted wilderness. And it is from this mature adult perspect of a Nephi about the age of 40-50 that the small plates are written. He does not clutter his precious history with details that were already in the writings of Lehi, in his own Large Plates of Nephi and upon the brass plates of Laban. Thus Nephi's 'Small Plates' record, which historically begins 601-600 BC, starts at the commencement of the reign of King Zedekiah. And there is no great pre-history treatment given. It is a simple, plain, and humble record of a family founded in God, who God had chosen to further His purposes during the fall of Jerusalem. Noah's family was one such family, as were the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In this first chapter Lehi prays to God and a pilar of light rests upon a rock and Lehi sees a vision and reads from a book of prophecy—He praises God, fortells the coming of the Messiah, and sees and prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem—His prophecies are rejected by the Jews and he is thus pursecuted by them. [About 601-600 B.C.]
From the very Jewish perspective of a 40-50 year old, Nephi states that he was 'exceedingly young' in 600 B.C. when Lehi left Jerusalem. This was likely in reference to the fact that Nephi was not yet at that Jewish marked age of being considered a 'man in Israel' which comes at the 'bar mitzvah' ceremony. Thus Nephi is presumed to be about age 11 in the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah and to have been born about 611 B.C. But by the time Nephi kills Laban, Nephi describes himself as 'a man large in stature'. Thus by the time Lehi is commanded by the Lord and sends Nephi and his brethren back to Jerusalem to obtain the plates of brass, Nephi IS then considered to be a man in Israel as Nephi so states himself to be 'a man' and must be presumed to be at age 12 or older.

^aMessiah? Certainly Nephi in the Book of Mormon speaks of God's Anointed Son. The Book of Mormon would not be God's true word unless it did speak of the coming of 'The Anointed' Son of God. That is what the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' mean. The Old Testament prophets knew much about the coming of 'God's Anointed'. In Genesis he is called Shiloh in the blessing of Judah found in Genesis 49:10. And in Jacob's blessing upon Joseph found in Genesis 49:24, he is called the 'shepherd' and the 'stone of Israel'. We further learn from modern scripture, that Moses, as well as Adam, Enoch, Abraham and others understood well about Jesus Christ and his mission, and that the ordiances of sacrifice established by Moses were symbolic of the coming sacrifice of the anointed Son of God. God's rejection of Cain's sacrifice not being a 'lamb' was based in the symbolism of the sacrifice of the 'lamb of God' who was Jesus Christ to come. Abraham's performance of sacrificing his son Isaac before God was done in similitude of the concept of God the Father sacrificing his Son, Jesus Christ. These things where known and understood anciently way before the captive Jewish of Babylon attempt to attain back unto some of their discarded teachings of the Law of Moses, which did solidly represent the sacrifice of the Son of God.
King David sings the praises of God the Father and the Son in his inspired psalms or hymns which most assuredly reflected the words of God's ancient prophets. Psalms 2:2 speaks of the 'LORD's Anointed' in reference to God the Father and His Son. And Psalms 110 speaks of the Lord's LORD, which is reference to God the Father and His Son. Both Jesus Christ and his apostles reference this very psalm to set out the fact of the Father and the Son (See: Mark 12:35-37 and Acts 2:32-36). Preserved in such hymnal form are the clear understanding of Christ and his ministry from the beginning of creation to the end after His Second Coming, including his meridian of time mortal ministry and atonement (See Commentary on Psalms 110). Isaiah speaks much about him from Isaiah 7:14 to Isaiah 9:6 to Isaiah 42:1- to Isaiah 61:1-2 to Isaiah 63:1-3, which at least two references Chirst does reference unto himself (See; Matthew 12:17-21 and Luke 4:18-19).
Now what is a 'translated' ancient record into some other language? The whole of the Kings James version of the Bible could be said to be an anachronism of terms since it is written in the King's English of 1611 and not in the original ancient symbols, letters and words of the ancient Hebrew and Greek language. Indeed, they are nothing more than a 'modernization' into the King's English of 1611. Nephi uses a reformed egyptian engraved symbol which means 'the anointed' meaning 'the anointed Son of God'. What is Joseph Smith suppose to translated that into? What words, which Joseph and the English Americans of 1830 would be familiar with, could Joseph Smith use to translate the engraved symbol meaning 'God's Anointed'? Certainly Joseph Smith had two words which he could use 'Messiah' and 'Christ'. Likely the young farmer did not even know that one was of Hebrew origin and the other of Greek. Joseph would have likely considered that the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' were good English Bible words which meant what the engraved symbol he was translating meant. If using a more modern word in translation for an ancient extinct word in translation constitues a false record, then the whole of the King James Bible is false. Because that is exactly what the King James Bible has done. The King's James Bible is in the King's English. It is not in Hebrew and it is not in Greek. Even the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' are 'transliterated' words from Greek and Hebrew word symbols into the English alphabet letters giving an 'English' approximation of how the word is pronounced in English.
Much has been taken from the ancient records which would clearly denote the coming of the anointed Son of God into the world as set out from before the foundation of the world and was known even in the days of Adam. With all of the false worship and corruption of ancient Israel, it is of no surprise that the Jews of Lehi's days had fallen into such wickedness and corruption of understanding clearly and plainly concerning God's Anointed that they did mock Lehi when he prophesied of the coming of the Anointed Son of God, as we know him, the Messiah and/or Christ, into the world. Many Jews of Jesus' own day did protest that the Son of God would not come into the world, as they had then, as they have today, lost entirely the understanding that the divine 'God the Son' would come into the world. And they considered blaspheme to so declare that God's Son would be made flesh, not just that Jesus claimed to be him, but that there should ever be such as the Son of God, begotten of the Father and made flesh like unto man. But the common people of the Jews knew it and accepted it. And many did believe that Jesus was just such as who had come to earth as Son of God.

Parental Teachings and Guidance
The fundamental principle of goodly parents teaching their children the ways of righteousness has, is and ever will be a central principle of the Gospel. From before this world was in Heaven above has God our Father so taught us in the ways and in the principles of righteousness.

1 I, NEPHI, having been ^aborn of ^bgoodly ^cparents, therefore I was ^dtaught^a somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many ^eafflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God^b, therefore I make a ^frecord of my proceedings in my days^c.

F A M I L Y One of the primary if not 'the' primary principle of existence is that of the Family Unit. We are children of our Father in Heaven. The family unit of parents and children is the basis of all societal being both in heaven and on earth. The world begins with the 'Family of Adam'. The human line is preserved in the 'Family of Noah'. The covenants and promises of the Fathers are preserved in the 'Family of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob', which is the family of Israel. And eternally speaking, we are all children and of the 'Family of God', the Father of our spirits. Even in the fulfilling of the covenants of the gospel there is their considered that Christ is our 'Gospel Father' and we are the 'Sons and Daughters of Christ'.
There is no society or civilization of man without a father, mother, and child. The 'family unit' is sacred and all important in the scheme of the eternities and man's existence upon the earth. God's great commandment to Adam and Eve was to 'multiply' and replenish the earth. This is only done by the performance of the family unit. Is it any wonder that the Book of Mormon begins with Nephi's small plate account with a reference to 'family'? Being born of goodly parents is according to the order of heaven. The power of procreation and the proliferation of the species of man is totally dependant upon family and the family unit. So it is with Heaven and the Plan of Eternal Progression so envolved with bringing to pass the immortallity and eternal life of man. Giving birth and raising children to the ends of immortality and eternal life is a 'family affair'. As beore stated, God the Father is our Father, the Father of us all, the Father of our spirits. We are his children. We are of the 'Family' and race of God. And as is the potential of such children, we may in our maturation become Even AS HE IS.
It is this very filial relationship of the children to the fathers which works in the hearts of men turning them to the fathers and that of the fathers turning to the children to the effect of affecting God's Oridnances of Salvation unto the sealing and linking Heaven and Earth bring about the Kingdom of Heaven in Earth as it is in Heaven least the earth be smitten with a curse and be utterly wasted.
1^a born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught Likely the most often read words of the Book of Mormon are these, and appropriately so. Every time one begins to read the Book of Mormon, no matter how far the reader gets, he will always have first read these words concerning Nephi and his parentage. How important and significant is it to have been 'born of goodly parents'? And how important and significant is it to be 'goodly parents' unto our own children? The central unit of eternity is the family. It is the patriarchal order of both heaven and earth. And what better place ought the Book of Mormon begin with than that great and grand principle of being and haveing goodly parents?
The basis of society is the family unit. It is the safe haven and refuge against the wickedness of the world. Nephi's day was not that much different from our own with the wickedness of the world round about to be influenced by. To be born of 'goodly parents', a mother and a father, who would raise their children up in the teachings and ways of the Lord, cannot be over looked. And it is the first statement which Nephi makes.
1^b having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God Often we get mixed messages concerning the 'mysteries of God'. Some say that we ought not delve in them and others state that we should seek after them. It depends upon the nature of the mystery. Some mysteries are those line upon line 'mysteries' which advance us in the understanding of God and in the progression toward the Kingdom of God. Such mysteries are to be sought after. The 'endless' mysteries of 'contention' without resolution and of no importance to one's own eternal progression are those which need not be delved in and are more a waste of time than the worth of considering them. Some 'mysteries' are borderline such as the geography of the Book of Mormon. Some pursue this topic to excess and for only the purposes of worldly acclaim or financial benefit while other find resolution and further understanding of the setting of the Book of Mormon events, giving them life and enlightenment by having an understanding of such geography.
1^c I make a record of my proceedings in my days This autobiographical small plates record was not commanded for Nephi to make until 570-560 B.C. (2 Nephi 5:28-34), some 30-40 years from the time of leaving Jerusalem. Thus Nephi was well over 40 years old and perhaps around about 50 when he proceeded to make his small plate record which we read in the Book of Mormon today. And it is this 'Small Plates' record which was made for a wise purpose in the Lord as Nephi had already been making his 'Large Plates' account from the time they had landed in the promised land about 578 B.C. 1^a TG Birthright
   ^b Prov. 22:1
   ^c Mosiah 1:2 (2-3); D&C 68:25 (25, 28);
      TG Honoring Father and Mother
   ^d Enos 1:1; TG Education;
      TG Family, Children,;
      Responsibilities toward;
      TG Family, Love within
   ^e TG Affliction; TG Blessing;
      TG God, Gifts of
   ^f TG Record Keeping;
      TG Scriptures, Writing of

Teach the Children Perhaps the most important perspective concerning Nephi's openning state of 'goodly parents' is to the parents, that they be such unto their children. Children come into this world totally helpless and totally dependant upon their parents, their parent's care and their parent's example and teachings. It is the responsibility of all good parents to instruct and teach their children, especially and particularly in the ways of the Lord.

The Patriarchal Order in Heaven and Earth
One of the telling truths of the Book of Mormon is the fact that it upholds the perspective of the Eternal Order of God. That is Heaven works after the Eternal Patriarchal Order, an order that most all Traditional Christian religions have lost sight of in making their stance upon the concepts of men derived out of the Nicene Creed. God our Heavenly Father, Elohim, is the Father of our spirits, we are His literal spirit children, He our literal Father.
As the scriptures unfold it will be noticed that God always works with families following the Patriarchal Order of things. The Covenant of God is made with and carried out according to families. FIRST came the family of Adam, of which we all are. God made his covenant with Adam and Adams posterity. We could belabor the genealogies of the Bible more but let is jump through them to make our point. Thus SECOND we may look to the family of Noah by and though whom God did preserve the race of man upon the earth. THIRD there was Abraham, FOUR Isaac, and FIVEJacob. In this set of three consecutive patriarchs the Bible fully establishes the earthly patriarchal order and the fact that while there were other vast numbers of people, God was particularly working in and through the family unit, the patriarchal order. That order continued though not well documented by the Jewish prepared Bible. SIX came Joseph of Egypt, he was the heir of the covenant and through whom the covenant blessings of the fathers were preserved (See D&C 27:10 and Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph).
From Joseph the right of the covenant next fell to Ephraim, SEVEN, and it was by the hand of Jacob that Ephraim was placed in the stead of Reuben Jacob's firstborn and given the name of Israel which name the Kingdom of Israel retained, it being the Kingdom of Ephraim. What is segnificant here is that for the world to be blessed the seed of Ephraim needed to be scattered or sifted throughtout the earth. Thus in the due course of the Lord the Kingdom of Israel was destoryed but its people the people of Ephraim/Israel were taken and spread throught the earth. And that is the family which is being gathered to gather the earth. First those of Ephraim were gathered beginning with the SMITH family, once again God working according to the Patriarchal order of Heaven to the family of Ephraim, Joseph Smith himself being a 'pure ephraimite' discended from Jesse as well al from Joseph in a singular straight linear parternal line of ancestry (See D&C 113 and Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph). It this restoration would have been after any other order it would not have been true.
And then there is the Book of Mormon, which beginnings but with the family of Lehi, again the patriarchal order being in force. And the whole record of the Nephites of Book of Mormon deal under that family name whether with the righteous Nephites or the wicked Lamanites. Even the Jaredites was a family driven affair. It was Jared and his brother Mahonri Moriancumr, their families and their related friends who that record is based in. Even their kings for the most part were those after the family of Jared, Ether being the final prophet, a descendant of Jared. This is a strong mark of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Had it not been after a family patriarchal order it would not have been following the proper order of Heaven and Earth, the Patriarchal Order.
Even today, while the Church has it General Organization with its General Authorities governing the Church, the true nature and center of our religion is still the family and the Patriarchal Order of Heaven and Earth. We are organized in families, the father being its head. Marriage is between a man and a woman. And the family unit is central and basic to the larger general structure. Yet still the order of the dispensation come under our patriarchal prophet leader and his family with Joseph Smith and Hiram Smith standing at its head in heaven.

2 Yea, I make a record in the ^alanguage of my father^a, which consists of the learning of the Jews^b and the language of the Egyptians^c.
3 And I know that the record which I make is ^atrue; and I make it with mine own hand^a; and I make it according to my knowledge.
4 For it came to pass in the commencement of the ^afirst year of the reign of ^bZedekiah, king of Judah, (my father, Lehi, having dwelt at ^cJerusalem in all his days^a); and in that same year there came many ^dprophets, prophesying unto the people that they must ^erepent, or the great city ^fJerusalem must be destroyed^b.

Joseph's Translation Joseph Smith translated directly from the Small Plates of Nephi into the common English of Joseph Smith's day, which in the Prophet Joseph Smith's learning included the language of the King James version of the Bible. Joseph Smith translated directly from the engravings of the prophet Nephi when he translated the first two books of Nephi. 2^a the language of my father It is of interest to note that Lehi would have been a bi-lingual man and that the primary language which it seems that Lehi spoke was Egyptian. Many of the Hebrews who had come out of Egypt maintained their Egyptian language, which was the 'international' languagge and Hebrew though being their historical language was but a second language to them. This explains how easy it was for the Jews to make an alliance with Egypt to confront their Babylonian subjection.
2^b the learning of the Jews The learning of the Jews would be that which was presented to them in the records of their fathers as had in the five books of Moses concerning the things of God and his dealings with man. It would also include those things of the prophets which had been preserved in those records as well. Thus Nephi and his brethren had been taught by their parents concerning God and the Law of Moses, which is the Law of God concerning the performances of Israel unto their God. And this would be the importance of obtaining the plates of brass, for they held upon them the words of God unto man.
2^c the language of the Egyptians The Israelites had learned Egyptian and maintained a dual language and learning at least in the higher houses. Perhaps more particularly did Lehi learn Egyptian, being of the house of Joseph of Egypt. And it is additionally of interest to note that the brass plates kept by the house of Laban, he also being of the House of Joseph, were kept and written in Egyptian.
3^a I make it with mine own hand Nephi's record is not based upon the hearsay of others. It is based upon Nephi's own words and his own first hand experiences. It is not like the Bible, which has been copied and recopied many times. The Bible has been variously compiled and edited with much being lost to the corruption of the Jews, either due to neglect or purposeful destruction. The Bible contains various degrees of added commentary which can make it difficult to ascertain whether the writings are the original prophet's or added by a later scribe with interpretive license. The Bible has no continuous string of recording prohets as does the Book of Mormon. The Small Plates of Nephi are straight from the prophets' own writings with only one inspired translation into common American English. The Bible has no such claim to it nearness to the original scripts of the original prophets.
4^a my father, Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days This very straight forward statement should end speculation that Lehi was a merchant which traveled internationally, for he 'dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days'. Also it should be noted that it states that Lehi dwelt 'at' Jerusalem, NOT 'in' Jerusalem. This would indicate that Lehi dwelt in the greater Land of Jerusalem so associated with that capital city, but NOT necessarily within its limited city limits. This seems to be confirmed by two facts, one that Lehi had a 'land of inheritance' and that to go there from Jerusalem, one would travel down (1 Nephi 3:16) to that land of inheritance as did Nephi and his brethren when they went to obtain their family's great wealth to trade for the plates of brass.
4^b in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed When one considers this to be the year in which the Chaldeans under King Nebuchadnezzar had just again re-conquered and again subjected Jerusalem to the yoke of Babylon, one can not help but consider that the source of a number of these 'prophets' might be from that very source where Daniel is acting only second to the king and his three righteous companions are among the heads of state in the Babylonian empire. One of the strongest means of attempting to convince the Jews to yield unto the dominion of Babylon would be their own 'Jewish' prophets speaking unto them from the hierarcy of the Babylonian Empire. Could Daniel and or one or more of this three companions been numbered amoung these 'many' prophets' who come in that same year, the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah, being newly selected by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar?
When one considers that the Jews were at this juncture re-committed at the temple, passing through the parts of the calf in ordinance covenant and that King Zedekiah required as a part of this submission the releasing of all Hebrew servants according to the Law of Moses, it seems almost certain that some great revival to the days of Zedekiah's father Josiah had been instituded and by the hand of such as the presure of King Nebuchadnezzar's presence and under the directing influence of the now foriegn and also Jewish prophet leaders of the state of Babylon, namely Daniel and his companions. 2^a Mosiah 1:4; Morm. 9:32-33
3^a 1 Ne. 14:30; 2 Ne. 25:20; Mosiah 1:6;
      Alma 3:12; Ether 5:3 (1-3)
4^a 1 Ne. 2:4; Mosiah 6:4
   ^b 2 Kings 24:18; 2 Chr. 36:10; Jer. 37:1;
      Jer. 44;30; Jer. 49:34; Jer. 52:3-5;
      Omni 1:15
   ^c 1 Chr. 9:3; 2 Chr. 15:9; Alma 7:10
   ^d 2 Kings 17:13-15; 2 Chr. 36:15-16;
      Jer. 7:25; Jer. 26:20;
      TG Prophets, Mission of
   ^e TG Repentance
   ^f Jer. 26:18 (17-19);
      2 Ne. 1:4; Hel. 8:20
      TG Israel,Bondage of, in
      Other Lands; TG Jerusalem

Learning of the Jews �The learning of the Jews, for many years, consisted in a knowledge of the Scriptures. These were the textbooks of all the instruction that was given in the schools of their Prophets. It was by means of this general knowledge of their law that those Jews who wandered from Judea into other countries carried with them and propagated certain ideas of the true God among all the civilized nations upon the face of the earth.�
~ Dr. Benjamin Rush

Pray

The guiding principle of prayer is an all important one to remember. Communication with God, the Father of our Spirits is a primary principle of the Gospel. It is one which in time of trouble Lehi here turns unto God in prayer. It is that guiding principle whereby all and any of God's children may speak and appeal unto him.

5 Wherefore it came to pass that my father, Lehi^a, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord^a, yea, even with all his ^aheart, in behalf of his people^a.
6 And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a ^apillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did ^bquake and tremble exceedingly.

A Historical Setting The inaugural year of King Zedekiah would have seen the presence of the forces of the Empire of Babylon with Zedekiah covenanting unto the King of Babylon. That this was a covenant sworn according to Judah's God and in his name may well have been more significant than just a single oath of alligence. Jeremiah 34 can be interpreted to imply that, like unto the days of Josiah, the people under King Zedekiah in this first year, were placed under temple covenant to again obey the laws of Jehovah and abid by the Law of Moses, which included the release of Hebrew slaves. It seems that under such renewal, King Zedekiah did dictate the immediate release of all Hebrew servants, for ever since the reign of Johiakim which lasted 11 years, there was likely no such release practiced by the people under that wicked king. But the rulers, the princes or the Sarim, would contend and evade under a interpretation of the Law of the Covenant, that from the time of the Covenant, for seven years from that time should the seven years unto release be practiced by them, thus allowing them to reclaim their servants for the next 7 year period. This seemd to be consistant with Jeremiah's condemnation of the Jews, that they had not lived the law of release, even after 7 more years had passed away, and thus the Lord by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah did charge the Jews with not keeping the Law, as Jeremiah came and prophesied and condemned them unto destruction in the eighth year of Zedekiah, thus sealing that destruction upon them ( See Jeremiah 34). 5^a Lehi ... prayed unto the Lord ... in behalf of his people It is of interest that Lehi did pray for his people and not just from his own self perspective. Besides the prophesying of the prophets what else contributed to Lehi's concern unto pray can only be comtemplated. Lehi had lived and was likely a young man in Israel in the days of the righteous King Josiah, Zedekiah's father when that righteous King above all other kings of Judah proceeded to destroy the altars of the false religions and restore the people to the true religion and the covenants of the Lord. Would Lehi's pray be that the people of Jerusalem might repent and return unto those righteous ways and days or would Lehi merely request a reprival from destruction? Lehi's obviously sincere pray which obtained an answer from God must have been in earnst that the people might repent and turn unto God. Though not stated but implied, during this sequence of visions and dreams, Lehi was called by God to go and prophesy unto the people, for it was by commandedment from God that Lehi so proceeded to testify to the people that they might come unto repentance.
5^a Jer. 29:13; James 5:16; 2 Ne. 4:24 (23-25)
6^a Ex. 13:21; Hel. 5:24 (24,43);
      D&C 29:12; JS-H 1:16, 30
   ^b Isa. 6:5 (1-5)

Personal Revelation
Though we are incouraged to follow the 'Brethren' in reference to our modern day prophet leaders, there is no substitute for the principle of 'personal revelation'. For in times of immediate need for instruction and care from the Lord, it is by one to one personal revelation that we are led. And that communicative link is preceded by that primary principle of personal prayer.

7 And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being ^aovercome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen.
8 And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a ^avision, even that he saw the ^bheavens open, and he thought he ^csaw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. ~ 7^a Dan. 8:27 (26-27); Dan. 10:8-12;
      1 Ne. 17:47; Alma 27:17; Moses 1:10 (9-10)
8^a 1 Ne. 3:18 (17-18); 1 Ne. 5:4; TG Vision
   ^b Ezek. 1:1; Acts 7:56 (55-56); 1 Ne. 11:14;
     Alma 36:22; Hel. 5:48 (45-49); D&C 137:1
   ^c TG God, Manifestations of;
      TG God, Privilege of Seeing

9 And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his ^aluster was above that of the sun at noon-day.
10 And he also saw ^atwelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament.
11 And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth; and the first came and ^astood before my father, and gave unto him a ^bbook, and bade him that he should read.

~    9^a JS-H 1:17,30 (16-17, 30-32)
10^a TG Apostles
11^a 1 Sam. 3:10; D&C 110:2-3
     ^b Ezek. 2:9-10; Rev.10:9(2-11)

Learning from God Comes by the Spirit of God

12 And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the ^aSpirit of the Lord.
13 And he read, saying: Wo, wo, unto Jerusalem, for I have seen thine ^aabominations! Yea, and many things did my father read concerning ^bJerusalem—that it should be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof; many should perish by the sword, and many should be ^ccarried away captive into Babylon.
14 And it came to pass that when my father had read and seen many great and marvelous things, he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as: Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy ^apower, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and, because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who ^bcome unto thee that they shall perish! ~ 12^a Gen. 41:38; Mosiah 27:24; Alma 18:16;
13^a 2 Kings 24:19; 2 Chr. 36:14; Jer. 13:27
     ^b 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Kings 24:2; Jer. 13:14;
        Ezek. 15:6 (6-8); 1 Ne. 2:13; 1 Ne. 3:17
     ^c 2 Kings 20:17-18; Jer. 52:15(3-15)
        2 Ne. 25:10; Omni 1:15; TG Babylon
14^a TG God, Power of
     ^b 2 Ne. 26:25 (24-28); Alma 5:34 (33-36);
       3 Ne. 9:14 (13-14)

15 And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled, because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him.
16 And now I, Nephi, do not make a full account of the things which my father hath written^a, for he hath written many things^a which he saw in ^avisions and in ^bdreams; and he also hath written many things which he ^cprophesied and spake unto his children, of which I shall not make a full account.
17 But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days. Behold, I make an ^aabridgment of the record of my ^bfather^a, upon ^cplates which I have made with mine own hands; wherefore, after I have abridged the record of my ^dfather then will I make an account of mine own life.

Metalurgy in Lehi's Family Now there seem to be at least three possible inlines into the entrance of metalurgy into the family of Lehi. First it may have been a part of Lehi's family from the time that they dwelt in Jerusalem. Certainly as holders of an inheritance of land outside the city walls of Jerusalem, like Boaz of old, Lehi would have had to have the need to have a multitude of skills or access to them. He had gold and silver and one may ask did he 'refine' and mold those metals as a part of his skills as well as other 'farm' type implements used upon his land. That Nephi became a skilled metalurgist while the elder Laman and Lemuel apparently did not might argue against the skills of metalurgy so being a 'family' skill.
  Secondly, there is Zoram and what skills and abilities he did bring to the group. Laban may well have been consumed in his being the Captain of the Sandhedrin's police and he may have deligated such 'record engraving' and 'brass plate supplying' to his trusted servant and 'scribe' of sorts to Zoram. Now whether Zoram refined the brass or secured the raw brass and formed it into matching quality plates of brass to match the ancient record in such things as adding the word of Jeremiah upon them may be an avenue of possiblity for these skills to have entered into the family of Lehi, the skills both of refining and forming plates and engraving them.
  Yet there is a third plausible source of the metalurgical skills which would also perhaps answer other questions such as the source of Nephi's steel bow. And that is the mines of Solomon or Timna and the ship building harbor of Elath/Eliat/Aqaba/Ezion-Geber, as the case may be. A close analysis of the Book of Mormon record reveals that Lehi's group did most likely live at the location of the valley of Lemuel for some 8 years. During this time Lehi an son may well have traveled the three day jouney back to that location to trade in good, seek necessities, including the gathering of seeds of all kinds and even in seeking some 'off season' employment either at the mines, refinery or even the ship yards of that internation trade port once made great by Solomon and still under the control and or supervision of the Ephraimite Assyrian confederation, though certainly subserviant to the Kingdom of Babylon.
  The Egyptian skill of making 'compound bows', that is laminating 'horn' withing the plys of wood to give added spring, power and stength to such bows would have been practiced. Might not an 'inovation' be made of in the case of some 'special rare' bow manufacture with the rear iron ore metal being pounded in folding over stripe of ore upon stripe of ore introducing the strengthening carbon element to the ore to form carbonized steel; could that unique item then be used in such as King David's 'steel bow' as well as Nephi's 'steel bow' as the center critical ply in place of the 'horn' of an animal to provide even greater strength, power and spring to Nephi's bow? What as cost it may have been for Nephi to earn such means to aquire such a unique and selectively produced product as a 'steel bow', lamiated in its structure though it many well have been. 16^a my father hath written ... many things Often we here of the Book of Lehi, that it was that which was contained upon the 116 pages that were lost. Now that was not the same as the 'writings of Lehi' mentioned here. For the Book of Mormon was abridged from the Large Plates of Nephi and it was Nephi who made and engraved that record. And while that record well could and most likely did contain many of the things which Lehi had written, being either retold or transcribed from Lehi's writings as it states that Nephi did make an abridgement thereof upon his plates, it is not the same as Lehi's actual complete writtings, for Lehi never did write upon the two sets of plates prepared by Nephi which were commanded of Nephi to prepare by the voice of the Lord. Now whether Lehi's actual writings remained with the Nephites or not, and upon what medium Lehi did write is not given.
17^a the record of my father Now in simplistic consideration it has been surmised that Mormon made his abridgement from the large plates of Nephi and for the most part he did. But Mormon also references other records which he consulted in the making of his abrigement and it would seem in the consideration of greater detail upon this matter Mormon consulted more than just the large plates of Nephi. There is the 'record of Zeniff' and that of Alma the elder which is stated and must have been referenced in preparing the surmized abridgment which wove the people of Zeniff, Noah, Limhi and Alma into the Book of Mormon abridged and condensed record. And toward the end, Mormon did abridge his own larger record which he had first engraven upon the large plates of Nephi. But this is one more consideration to undertake as to the make up of the structure of the Book of Mormon and its sources in detail, and that is the 'Record of Lehi'.
  Lehi's record was engraven upon plates, Lehi's own plates. Now whether Lehi was also a metalurgist as was Nephi or did rely of his son Nephi's or some other such as Zoram or even himself to so provide himself plates to record his own record upon is a question that may be speculated upon but the information supplied is truly not enough to make a conclusion upon it. Yet we do know from the original preface supplied in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon that the 'one hundred and sixteen pages, the which [Mormon] took from the Book of Lehi, [was] an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon'. Many 'quick study artists' have concluded that those first 116 pages were taken from the first part of the large plates of Nephi. This is not the case according to the original preface statement that they were taken from 'Lehi's plates' which when abridged did constitute the book of Lehi. Now Nephi did make his own abridgement of Lehi's book which he placed as a part of his small plates but no where does it ever state that Nephi retold, transfered or abridged the 'plates of Lehi' onto as a part of the large plates of Nephi. Rather the implication is quite the opposite when it speaks of the large plates of Nephi as a record concerning the reign of the Nephite kings beginning with Nephi.
  We know very little of just what detail was upon the 116 pages taken from the Book or plates record of Lehi. A couple of items that has come down thanks to Erastus Snow, one of the early Apostles, is that it gave the linage of Ishmael as being of Ephraim, that Ishmaels sons had married Lehi's concluded elder two daughters for they already had families with children when Lehi's sons came and brought them down into the wilderness to join the Lehi group. And it was taught there in the record of Lehi that this mixing of the sons and daughters of the descendants of Manasseh and of Ephraim was in fulfillment of the prophecy blessing of those two sons by Jacob in Genesis 48 verse 16 which states: 'And let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitufe in the midst of the earth.'
  One day we will have all those records, including the unabridged plates/record of Lehi. One may speculate just what is written in Lehi's record, whether he begins with his youth under the influence of the great righteoud King Josiah which would be logical to be a setting upon which Lehi would frame his own story, or just when else Lehi may have began his own story, perhaps with that call by God to be a prophet of God and so testify against the people of Jerusalem.
16^a Ezek. 1:1; JS-H 1:24 (21-25)
     ^b 1 Ne. 8:2 (2-38)
     ^c 1 Ne. 7:1
17^a 1 Ne. 9:2 (2-5); Enos 1:13 (13, 15-18);
        TG Scriptures, Writing of
     ^b 1 Ne. 6:1 (1-3); 1 Ne. 8:29 (29-30);
        1 Ne. 19:1 (1-6)
     ^c 1 Ne. 10:15
     ^d 2 Ne. 4:14; 2 Ne. 5:33 (29-33);
        D&C 10:42

I Make an Abridgement   One must fully consider just what we have in our Book of Mormon of today. It the orignial Book of Mormon it was explained that the lost 116 pages constituted the 'Book of Lehi'. But take what is said in vers 17, as Mormon did but abrige the large plates of Nephi, we must first consider that that Book of Lehi of the 116 pages was but Nephi's abridgement, and thence Mormon's own further abridgement of Nephi's abridgement. And if that is all which was upon the 116 pages was 'Lehi's Book', then we do not have any of what comes next of Mormon's abridgement from the Large Plates of Nephi, for Nephi says that after that abridgement of his father's record then he would next 'make an account of mine own life'. Thus we do not have Nephi's account, Mormon's abridgement of it, of Nephi's own life. We do not have Nephi's Book from the large plates of Nephi, neither do we have anything else of Mormon's large plate abridgement even down and until where the large plates did correspond with and to the end of the small plates of Nephi, also called Jacob's record as Jacob, Hephi's brother did so continue that record. So what is actually missed due to the lost 116 page is not only the 116 pages of the book of Lehi. We also have Nephi's book, and any and all other such 'books' of the kings of the Nephites down and until the time of Mosiah's son King Benjamin, for that is were the translation of the Book of Mormon plates picks back up after the translation of the small plates of Nephi and Mormon's brief one chapter tie-in to where they fit in respect to the rest of Mormon's larger abridgement of the large plates of Nephi.

It well could be that the book of Lehi ranged back in time as far as Lehi's days and times as a youth being influenced by the events taking place in the days of King Josiah and his sons down to and including King Zedekiah.

It was common among the Jews that those who did speak before the people would address them in their 'public' places, in their Synagogue, the common outer court of the Temple, at the city gates and a very prime place would be at the temple gates from whench Jermiah also addressed the people. In these places Lehi would have come in full scrutiny of the eyes and ears of the 'Sarim', the leading Elders of the Church, the Sanhedrin. This would have been the case with all the prophets and as it was with Jesus Christ in his day.

18 Therefore, I would that ye should know, that after the Lord had shown so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the ^adestruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people, and began to ^bprophesy^a and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard.
19 And it came to pass that the ^aJews^a did ^bmock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their ^cwickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a ^dMessiah, and also the redemption of the world.
20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him^a; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had ^acast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also ^bsought his life^b, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender ^cmercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of ^ddeliverance.

Prophets Witness Messiah's Coming The message of all the prophets of God is concerning the Plan of God unto the salvation of God's children. Thus all have taught concerning the coming of the Messiah. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses and all the prophets have taught plainly concerning the coming and mission of the Messiah (Moses 6,7,8; Abraham; Zechariah 3, Acts 26:22-23 & Book of Mormon, etc.). Why then is the Old Testament so vacant of such plain teachings concerning the coming of Jesus Christ? They are there and can be gleaned from the scriptural pages but the plainness is missing due to the rejection of those teaching by the Jews. They rejected the prophet's message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they did persecute, stone and murder the prophets. And the plain words of the prophets concerning Jehovah as Jesus Christ are subdued and not had as clearly and plainly as they are in the plates of brass and the Book of Mormon. Certainly Lehi was not the only prophet who had seen the visions and received the messages of the coming Christ to be taught to the people. But as the Jews did to Lehi because of he teaching plainly concerning the Messiah, they did to all the holy prophets from Abel to Zacharias the father of John (TPJS p. 223 & Matthew 23:35, 36), as well as John the Baptist himself and even the very Messiah, Jesus Christ when he was come. And for this teaching that the Jews needed to repent and come unto Christ, the Messiah, else Jerusalem would be destoryed; was Lehi's own life sought by the Jews. This was the message of the Messiah which the Jews did kill and murder the prophets for. 18^a he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy Lehi did not just decide to go out of his own iniative. Lehi was commanded by God to go and warn and prophesy before the Jews. This is not recored in Nephi's abridgement at this point but it is stated in 1 Nephi 2:1. 'No man takes this honor unto himself unless he is called of God (see Hebrew 5;4). Lehi had been called and ordained of God by power and authority to go out and preach to the Jews. He was a prophet of God.
19^a the Jews While in one sense, Lehi and his family lived among the Jews and as such Lehi's family was called as being of the Jews, Lehi was not of the tribe of Judah. Lehi was of the tribe of Joseph of Egypt. And his family had maintained that distinction from Nephi's later perspective. Thus here and in the next verse, Nephi seems to distinguish the fact that it is 'the Jews' who are now to be taken captive compared to the bulk and identity of the other 10 tribes, who had already been take captive and scattered beginning in 721 BC.
20^a when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him Now these 'Jews' who had such power to take action under the 'law' would have been the same group of Jews which had taken action against the Jesus Christ. It was not the common people who had powers to 'cast out', 'stone' and 'slain' the prophets withour the redress of law, it was the 'ruling Jews' of the people, their Elders, those of the ruling Sanhedrin or the Jewish religious courts of the day who could make such a ruling and take such an action against such a leading citizen as Lehi in the community.
20^b they also sought his life Who are 'they'? The simple general answer is the Jews. But that is also the simple general answer concerning the Christ and who sought to take away his life. But not all the Jews in either case can be assume, but only those who had such authority that they might negate the law and circumvent it to their purposes unto the taking of one's life. And that particular group of Jews would be as Jeremiah stated the rulers and princes of the Jews. In Jesus day this would have been the same as the ruling body known as the Sanhedrin. In Jesus day the Sanhedrin had it own officers of enforcement as was in the days of Lehi. A captain of fifty would do. And one such Captain of Fifty did so attend to the affairs of the elders of Israel, that is the princes and rulers of the 'church' or the Sanhedrin. That one officer of the city was none other than Laban as Laman and Lemuel spoke of Laban and his fifty. 18^a 2 Ne. 25:9; D&C 5:20;
     ^b TG Prophets, Mission of
        TG Prophets, Rejection of
19^a TG Apostasy of Israel
     ^b 2 Chr. 36:16; Jer. 25:4 (1-4);
        Ezek. 5:6 (45-49); 1 Ne. 2:13; 1 Ne. 7:14
     ^c 1 Ne. 17:22
     ^d TG Jesus Christ, Prophecies
20^a Jer. 13:11; Hel. 13:24-28
     ^b Jer. 11:19; 1 Ne. 2:2 (1-4);
        TG Prophets, Rejection of
     ^c Gen. 32:10; Alma 34:38; D&C 46:15
     ^d TG Deliverance

Rulers and Princes "Gahter unto seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; ... that they may stand with thee." ~ Numbers 11:16 When Moses called upon the Lord to seek for assistance in administering the affairs of the people of the children of Israel, the Lord had Moses gather 70 of the select elders of Israel out from among the people. Under the direction of Moses it would be this group of 70 which would help judge the people and rule over them according to the Laws of Moses. This same organization of rules was maintained throughout Judeaism down and until the time of Christ when at that time the 'Jewish senate' as referred to in Roman terminology would see to and rule over the Jews according to the Laws of the Jews which were the traditional laws, even the Laws of Moses. That same order of 70 elders, priests and scribes were headed and lead by the Chief High Priest making a council of 71 referred to as the Sanhedrin. In Lehi's time this would have been the empowered rulers who would have had authority to seek the life of an individual legally. And as in the time of Christ when they did seek after the life of Christ for declaring himself the Son of God among other things, so in the days of Lehi had these same rulers or princes of the people so persecuted the prophets especially those who did declare Jesus Christ, the coming Son of God as did Lehi. The plates of brass has various prophets who speak of the coming Son of God but the Jewish Old Testament does not. The reason being that the Jews, this leading body of the Jews, did so pursecute and murder the prophets even down until the murders of Zacharias the father of John the Baptist (Matthew 23:35 & TPJS 222-223 & 261). When Christ spoke of the 'Jews' who opposed him, he spoke concerning the rulers of the Jews, the Sanhedrin which operated under the direction of the chief high priest. So also when Nephi in his record speaks of those Jews who sought Lehi's life with authority he is speaking of this same group of Jewis rulers whom Jeremiah also spoke concerning as those who even had authority over the king Zedekiah (Jer. 38).

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Between the Lines of History

Babylon had once again subjected Jerusalem and due to the unfortunate death of Jehoiakim and his body so being exposed to the elements in casting it aside, the feeling was to thwart the possible reprisal of Jehoaikim's son and Jerusalem for the scandalous manner in which the former Jewish king hand been disposed. To this end Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar once again enters Jerusalem, deposes Jehoiachin and removes him to Babylon, and places Jehoiakim's brother, another son of Josiah upon the Jewish throne. And likely according advice of such as Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar commits the new King he renames Zedekiah unto a covenant of both subjection to Babylon and to the Law of the God of the Jews, Jehovah. In a ceremony not dissimilar to that which Josiah had held in committing the people of Jerusalem to living the Law of God, under Nebuchadnezzar's direction the new King of the Jews, Zedekiah committed the people of Jerusalem to honor their subjugation to Babylon and to also commit to the Law of God. One sign of this 'recommitment' to the Laws of Moses as the releasing of Jewish servant/slaves held by their fellow Hebrews. No such release had been honored during the reign of Jehoiakim and thus the seven year release was past due. To this demand of returning to the covenant of the Law of Moses, the Jews under the present influence of the Chaldeans agreed and they went about immediately releasing their long held Hebrew servants to their freedom according to the Law of Moses.
The almost as immediately upon the withdrawal of the Chaldean persuasion, the 'elders of the church', the 'rulers of the Jews' according to the Law of Moses, that group of 'princes' or 'Sarim' numbering 70 under administration of the High Priest, did meet and determine a 'loop-hole' of application. And this is that the 'newly recommitted covenant had been in a period of laps and was just renewed at Zedekiah's inauguration, the seven year count would not be retrospective, but it was to be counted from the present time of the 'newly taking of the oath and covenant by the Jews at the date of Zedekiah's installation. Thus under this direction, the Jews again reclaimed their now dismissed servants and brought them back into their servitude for the newly stipulated 7 year period to come. By so doing, overturning the release of the Hebrew servants or at least postponing it from occurring for another seven year period of time. This is the first event which clearly disclosed that the newly formed leadership of King Zedekiah was to be but a puppet regime with the 'elders of the Law of Moses' being the real force in authority in Jerusalem.
This turn of events is the likely spur which provoked Lehi to action. Lehi had lived in the time of Josiah and the disbanding of all the pagan places of worship. Lehi and his wife Sariah would have commenced their marriage under that righteous influence an commitment to the Law of Moses as set forth by King Josiah. Lehi would have well seen the wickedness of the reign of King Jehoiakim. And when King Zedekiah had acted to bring the people back to the commitments to Jehovah and the Law of Moses as set forth by King Josiah. And then when the ruling 'Sarim/Sanhedrin' acted to basically null and void the people's commitment to the Law by reclaiming their Hebrew slaves, Lehi saw in it the wickedness of these Jewish leader in leading the people into braking the covenant and into wickedness. Thus Lehi was moved to retreat in solitude to petition the Lord in behalf of the Jews, that they would not again suffer at the hand of the Chaldeans per their latest braking of the covenant which they had made when under that influence which was supervised and influenced by such as Daniel the Kings chief advisor.
To this petition Lehi saw the pillar of light upon the rock and he did hear and see much. This was Lehi's initial call as a servant of God. When Lehi returned home, the dream he then had further enforced and informed Lehi as to that to do and preach unto the Jews. Lehi's message would have been that of all such prophets, to accept and believe in the coming Messiah, repent of their sins and wickedness returning unto the Lord least according to the word of the Lord, Jerusalem would be destroyed. To this message the ruling Jews who were guilty of leading the people to brake the newly entered into covenant and allow them to continue in their ways of sin and wickedness of worshipping false pagan gods of the grove and of the high places. While they did this on the q-t, as to avoid general public notice and the eye of the common man, who understood well the Law of Moses and the sin of so worshipping other gods.
Now when Lehi accused the Jews, particularly the leading ruling Jews, of wickedness leading to the destruction of Jerusalem, those men of authority then moved to have Lehi to be condemned to death. The logical manner of this would be to arrest Lehi, bring him before the council of the Sarim, the elders of the church who were the corrupt nature of working the evil, to answer them wherein Lehi specifically accused them of wickedness. Since their performances of wickedness of these men was done in privacy it would be Lehi's word against the very judges of the people themselves. And those judges would fain righteousness despite the truth of their wickedness. And thus they would condemn Lehi as a liar and of treason against the state of Jerusalem by so attacking the very rulers of the Jews. Even Jeremiah could not so bring any specific crimes against the Jews until they had obviously broken the terms of the covenant loop whole which they themselves had established, that even after the next 8 years, they did not so release nor did they intend to so release the Hebrew slaves. And thus in Jeremiah chapter 38, Jeremiah then condemns them upon that undeniable fact of disobedience in condemning the Jews to that destruction of Jerusalem by the hand of the Babylonians. And at that time to that charge the Jews could then no longer act the hypocrite for they could no longer deny their guilt on that very publicly known case of the release of the Hebrew slaves.
Now returning to Lehi, by the end of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, Lehi was so in danger of being brought before the 'Sanhedrin' and condemn by them unto death. Lehi's cousin, Laban was the very chief captain of the fifty of the enforcement officers of the 'Sanhedrin Police'. And as such Laban would have know of his charge to bring in Lehi to so stand trial before the Jewish rulers, and Laban would have been about that charge when Lehi departed into the wilderness for the flight of his life. This explains much about the sons of Lehi being hesitant about returning to Jerusalem to appear before Laban to request the plates of brass. It also explains Laban's free hand of treatment of the sons of Lehi as he did, in seeking their lives under excuse of charge of thievery and his having no fear at all over so confiscation of the vast property of wealth of the house of Lehi.
PS: Today we have a parallel situation. Because of the requirements of those pagan religions certain of the Jews were pursuing, it was quite common for children to come up missing, here today gone tomorrow. The heinous fact of that day would have meant that parents would have been the underlying cause of the children coming up missing as their sacrifice to the pagan gods would require it. And under the law of the Jews, children were not seen as a part of Jewish accountable society. Their coming up missing would not be so investigated as that of children coming up missing in our society; at least not yet. No tracking of the lives of children were followed and they did not become a significant part of Jewish society until they would come to the age of about 12-13 and in a ceremony become 'counted' in Israel. Before then they were but loosely tracked at best and parents coming up with a missing child was but unfortunate but likely never legally pursued as it is today.

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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]	Commentary & Explanation	Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI HIS REIGN AND MINISTRY An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lord warns Lehi to depart out of the land of Jerusalem, because he prophesieth unto the poeple concerning their iniquity and they seek to destory his life. He taketh three days' journey into the wilderness with his family. Nephi taketh his brethren and returneth to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews. The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and depart into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. They come to the large waters. Nephi's brethren rebel against him. He confoundeth them, and buildeth a ship. They call the name of the place Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the promised land, and so forth. This is according to the account of Nephi; or in other words, I, Nephi, wrote this record. [NOTE: This introduction was part of the original Book of Mormon translation and was therefore written by the hand of either Nephi or one of the Nephite prophets who kept and maintained the records. It is not a modern composition as are the various individual chapter summaries.]
CHAPTER 1 Nephi begins the record of his people—Lehi sees in vision a pillar of fire and reads from a book of prophecy—He praises God, foretells the coming of the Messiah^a, and prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem—He is persecuted by the Jews. [About 600 B.C.] This chapter summary is a modern composition and was not a part of the translated record. It has been changed from time to time in the various editions of the Book of Mormon and was not part of the original 1830 edition. The original translation was not divided into scriptural verses and many such chapters as there exists today. This has been done since 1830 primarily by the hand and suppervision of the Church appointed Apostle Orson Pratt to aid in the scriptural study of the record. For the most part with a few exceptions, such divisions seem to have maintained the proper meanings and asspects of the original. As a part of this commentary a few such division which seem to have altered the original to have changed the perspective and original meaning and intend are so noted at each particular point of the Book of Mormon text as will be thence indicated. The current rendition of the chapter summaries are mostly the product of Elder Bruce R. McConkie as authorized and approved by the authoritites of the Church.	CHAPTER 1 From 570 to 560 BC, Nephi begins to write his Small Plates of Nephi relegious history as commanded by God (See: 2 Nephi 5:28-34). By the time of this commandment, Nephi had separated himself and his followers from the follows of his rebelous elder brothers, the temple like unto Solomon's has been constructed and Nephi has established his people in the land, teaching them to live a civilized existance with buildings, farming, the caring of herds and other attributes of civilization. This produces an sudden fully developed society in the center of a previously uninhabitted wilderness. And it is from this mature adult perspect of a Nephi about the age of 40-50 that the small plates are written. He does not clutter his precious history with details that were already in the writings of Lehi, in his own Large Plates of Nephi and upon the brass plates of Laban. Thus Nephi's 'Small Plates' record, which historically begins 601-600 BC, starts at the commencement of the reign of King Zedekiah. And there is no great pre-history treatment given. It is a simple, plain, and humble record of a family founded in God, who God had chosen to further His purposes during the fall of Jerusalem. Noah's family was one such family, as were the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In this first chapter Lehi prays to God and a pilar of light rests upon a rock and Lehi sees a vision and reads from a book of prophecy—He praises God, fortells the coming of the Messiah, and sees and prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem—His prophecies are rejected by the Jews and he is thus pursecuted by them. [About 601-600 B.C.]	From the very Jewish perspective of a 40-50 year old, Nephi states that he was 'exceedingly young' in 600 B.C. when Lehi left Jerusalem. This was likely in reference to the fact that Nephi was not yet at that Jewish marked age of being considered a 'man in Israel' which comes at the 'bar mitzvah' ceremony. Thus Nephi is presumed to be about age 11 in the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah and to have been born about 611 B.C. But by the time Nephi kills Laban, Nephi describes himself as 'a man large in stature'. Thus by the time Lehi is commanded by the Lord and sends Nephi and his brethren back to Jerusalem to obtain the plates of brass, Nephi IS then considered to be a man in Israel as Nephi so states himself to be 'a man' and must be presumed to be at age 12 or older.
^aMessiah? Certainly Nephi in the Book of Mormon speaks of God's Anointed Son. The Book of Mormon would not be God's true word unless it did speak of the coming of 'The Anointed' Son of God. That is what the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' mean. The Old Testament prophets knew much about the coming of 'God's Anointed'. In Genesis he is called Shiloh in the blessing of Judah found in Genesis 49:10. And in Jacob's blessing upon Joseph found in Genesis 49:24, he is called the 'shepherd' and the 'stone of Israel'. We further learn from modern scripture, that Moses, as well as Adam, Enoch, Abraham and others understood well about Jesus Christ and his mission, and that the ordiances of sacrifice established by Moses were symbolic of the coming sacrifice of the anointed Son of God. God's rejection of Cain's sacrifice not being a 'lamb' was based in the symbolism of the sacrifice of the 'lamb of God' who was Jesus Christ to come. Abraham's performance of sacrificing his son Isaac before God was done in similitude of the concept of God the Father sacrificing his Son, Jesus Christ. These things where known and understood anciently way before the captive Jewish of Babylon attempt to attain back unto some of their discarded teachings of the Law of Moses, which did solidly represent the sacrifice of the Son of God. King David sings the praises of God the Father and the Son in his inspired psalms or hymns which most assuredly reflected the words of God's ancient prophets. Psalms 2:2 speaks of the 'LORD's Anointed' in reference to God the Father and His Son. And Psalms 110 speaks of the Lord's LORD, which is reference to God the Father and His Son. Both Jesus Christ and his apostles reference this very psalm to set out the fact of the Father and the Son (See: Mark 12:35-37 and Acts 2:32-36). Preserved in such hymnal form are the clear understanding of Christ and his ministry from the beginning of creation to the end after His Second Coming, including his meridian of time mortal ministry and atonement (See Commentary on Psalms 110). Isaiah speaks much about him from Isaiah 7:14 to Isaiah 9:6 to Isaiah 42:1- to Isaiah 61:1-2 to Isaiah 63:1-3, which at least two references Chirst does reference unto himself (See; Matthew 12:17-21 and Luke 4:18-19). Now what is a 'translated' ancient record into some other language? The whole of the Kings James version of the Bible could be said to be an anachronism of terms since it is written in the King's English of 1611 and not in the original ancient symbols, letters and words of the ancient Hebrew and Greek language. Indeed, they are nothing more than a 'modernization' into the King's English of 1611. Nephi uses a reformed egyptian engraved symbol which means 'the anointed' meaning 'the anointed Son of God'. What is Joseph Smith suppose to translated that into? What words, which Joseph and the English Americans of 1830 would be familiar with, could Joseph Smith use to translate the engraved symbol meaning 'God's Anointed'? Certainly Joseph Smith had two words which he could use 'Messiah' and 'Christ'. Likely the young farmer did not even know that one was of Hebrew origin and the other of Greek. Joseph would have likely considered that the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' were good English Bible words which meant what the engraved symbol he was translating meant. If using a more modern word in translation for an ancient extinct word in translation constitues a false record, then the whole of the King James Bible is false. Because that is exactly what the King James Bible has done. The King's James Bible is in the King's English. It is not in Hebrew and it is not in Greek. Even the words 'Messiah' and 'Christ' are 'transliterated' words from Greek and Hebrew word symbols into the English alphabet letters giving an 'English' approximation of how the word is pronounced in English. Much has been taken from the ancient records which would clearly denote the coming of the anointed Son of God into the world as set out from before the foundation of the world and was known even in the days of Adam. With all of the false worship and corruption of ancient Israel, it is of no surprise that the Jews of Lehi's days had fallen into such wickedness and corruption of understanding clearly and plainly concerning God's Anointed that they did mock Lehi when he prophesied of the coming of the Anointed Son of God, as we know him, the Messiah and/or Christ, into the world. Many Jews of Jesus' own day did protest that the Son of God would not come into the world, as they had then, as they have today, lost entirely the understanding that the divine 'God the Son' would come into the world. And they considered blaspheme to so declare that God's Son would be made flesh, not just that Jesus claimed to be him, but that there should ever be such as the Son of God, begotten of the Father and made flesh like unto man. But the common people of the Jews knew it and accepted it. And many did believe that Jesus was just such as who had come to earth as Son of God.
Parental Teachings and Guidance The fundamental principle of goodly parents teaching their children the ways of righteousness has, is and ever will be a central principle of the Gospel. From before this world was in Heaven above has God our Father so taught us in the ways and in the principles of righteousness.
1 I, NEPHI, having been ^aborn of ^bgoodly ^cparents, therefore I was ^dtaught^a somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many ^eafflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God^b, therefore I make a ^frecord of my proceedings in my days^c. F A M I L Y One of the primary if not 'the' primary principle of existence is that of the Family Unit. We are children of our Father in Heaven. The family unit of parents and children is the basis of all societal being both in heaven and on earth. The world begins with the 'Family of Adam'. The human line is preserved in the 'Family of Noah'. The covenants and promises of the Fathers are preserved in the 'Family of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob', which is the family of Israel. And eternally speaking, we are all children and of the 'Family of God', the Father of our spirits. Even in the fulfilling of the covenants of the gospel there is their considered that Christ is our 'Gospel Father' and we are the 'Sons and Daughters of Christ'. There is no society or civilization of man without a father, mother, and child. The 'family unit' is sacred and all important in the scheme of the eternities and man's existence upon the earth. God's great commandment to Adam and Eve was to 'multiply' and replenish the earth. This is only done by the performance of the family unit. Is it any wonder that the Book of Mormon begins with Nephi's small plate account with a reference to 'family'? Being born of goodly parents is according to the order of heaven. The power of procreation and the proliferation of the species of man is totally dependant upon family and the family unit. So it is with Heaven and the Plan of Eternal Progression so envolved with bringing to pass the immortallity and eternal life of man. Giving birth and raising children to the ends of immortality and eternal life is a 'family affair'. As beore stated, God the Father is our Father, the Father of us all, the Father of our spirits. We are his children. We are of the 'Family' and race of God. And as is the potential of such children, we may in our maturation become Even AS HE IS. It is this very filial relationship of the children to the fathers which works in the hearts of men turning them to the fathers and that of the fathers turning to the children to the effect of affecting God's Oridnances of Salvation unto the sealing and linking Heaven and Earth bring about the Kingdom of Heaven in Earth as it is in Heaven least the earth be smitten with a curse and be utterly wasted.	1^a born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught Likely the most often read words of the Book of Mormon are these, and appropriately so. Every time one begins to read the Book of Mormon, no matter how far the reader gets, he will always have first read these words concerning Nephi and his parentage. How important and significant is it to have been 'born of goodly parents'? And how important and significant is it to be 'goodly parents' unto our own children? The central unit of eternity is the family. It is the patriarchal order of both heaven and earth. And what better place ought the Book of Mormon begin with than that great and grand principle of being and haveing goodly parents? The basis of society is the family unit. It is the safe haven and refuge against the wickedness of the world. Nephi's day was not that much different from our own with the wickedness of the world round about to be influenced by. To be born of 'goodly parents', a mother and a father, who would raise their children up in the teachings and ways of the Lord, cannot be over looked. And it is the first statement which Nephi makes. 1^b having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God Often we get mixed messages concerning the 'mysteries of God'. Some say that we ought not delve in them and others state that we should seek after them. It depends upon the nature of the mystery. Some mysteries are those line upon line 'mysteries' which advance us in the understanding of God and in the progression toward the Kingdom of God. Such mysteries are to be sought after. The 'endless' mysteries of 'contention' without resolution and of no importance to one's own eternal progression are those which need not be delved in and are more a waste of time than the worth of considering them. Some 'mysteries' are borderline such as the geography of the Book of Mormon. Some pursue this topic to excess and for only the purposes of worldly acclaim or financial benefit while other find resolution and further understanding of the setting of the Book of Mormon events, giving them life and enlightenment by having an understanding of such geography. 1^c I make a record of my proceedings in my days This autobiographical small plates record was not commanded for Nephi to make until 570-560 B.C. (2 Nephi 5:28-34), some 30-40 years from the time of leaving Jerusalem. Thus Nephi was well over 40 years old and perhaps around about 50 when he proceeded to make his small plate record which we read in the Book of Mormon today. And it is this 'Small Plates' record which was made for a wise purpose in the Lord as Nephi had already been making his 'Large Plates' account from the time they had landed in the promised land about 578 B.C.	1^a TG Birthright ^b Prov. 22:1 ^c Mosiah 1:2 (2-3); D&C 68:25 (25, 28); TG Honoring Father and Mother ^d Enos 1:1; TG Education; TG Family, Children,; Responsibilities toward; TG Family, Love within ^e TG Affliction; TG Blessing; TG God, Gifts of ^f TG Record Keeping; TG Scriptures, Writing of Teach the Children Perhaps the most important perspective concerning Nephi's openning state of 'goodly parents' is to the parents, that they be such unto their children. Children come into this world totally helpless and totally dependant upon their parents, their parent's care and their parent's example and teachings. It is the responsibility of all good parents to instruct and teach their children, especially and particularly in the ways of the Lord.
The Patriarchal Order in Heaven and Earth One of the telling truths of the Book of Mormon is the fact that it upholds the perspective of the Eternal Order of God. That is Heaven works after the Eternal Patriarchal Order, an order that most all Traditional Christian religions have lost sight of in making their stance upon the concepts of men derived out of the Nicene Creed. God our Heavenly Father, Elohim, is the Father of our spirits, we are His literal spirit children, He our literal Father. As the scriptures unfold it will be noticed that God always works with families following the Patriarchal Order of things. The Covenant of God is made with and carried out according to families. FIRST came the family of Adam, of which we all are. God made his covenant with Adam and Adams posterity. We could belabor the genealogies of the Bible more but let is jump through them to make our point. Thus SECOND we may look to the family of Noah by and though whom God did preserve the race of man upon the earth. THIRD there was Abraham, FOUR Isaac, and FIVEJacob. In this set of three consecutive patriarchs the Bible fully establishes the earthly patriarchal order and the fact that while there were other vast numbers of people, God was particularly working in and through the family unit, the patriarchal order. That order continued though not well documented by the Jewish prepared Bible. SIX came Joseph of Egypt, he was the heir of the covenant and through whom the covenant blessings of the fathers were preserved (See D&C 27:10 and Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph). From Joseph the right of the covenant next fell to Ephraim, SEVEN, and it was by the hand of Jacob that Ephraim was placed in the stead of Reuben Jacob's firstborn and given the name of Israel which name the Kingdom of Israel retained, it being the Kingdom of Ephraim. What is segnificant here is that for the world to be blessed the seed of Ephraim needed to be scattered or sifted throughtout the earth. Thus in the due course of the Lord the Kingdom of Israel was destoryed but its people the people of Ephraim/Israel were taken and spread throught the earth. And that is the family which is being gathered to gather the earth. First those of Ephraim were gathered beginning with the SMITH family, once again God working according to the Patriarchal order of Heaven to the family of Ephraim, Joseph Smith himself being a 'pure ephraimite' discended from Jesse as well al from Joseph in a singular straight linear parternal line of ancestry (See D&C 113 and Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph). It this restoration would have been after any other order it would not have been true. And then there is the Book of Mormon, which beginnings but with the family of Lehi, again the patriarchal order being in force. And the whole record of the Nephites of Book of Mormon deal under that family name whether with the righteous Nephites or the wicked Lamanites. Even the Jaredites was a family driven affair. It was Jared and his brother Mahonri Moriancumr, their families and their related friends who that record is based in. Even their kings for the most part were those after the family of Jared, Ether being the final prophet, a descendant of Jared. This is a strong mark of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Had it not been after a family patriarchal order it would not have been following the proper order of Heaven and Earth, the Patriarchal Order. Even today, while the Church has it General Organization with its General Authorities governing the Church, the true nature and center of our religion is still the family and the Patriarchal Order of Heaven and Earth. We are organized in families, the father being its head. Marriage is between a man and a woman. And the family unit is central and basic to the larger general structure. Yet still the order of the dispensation come under our patriarchal prophet leader and his family with Joseph Smith and Hiram Smith standing at its head in heaven.
2 Yea, I make a record in the ^alanguage of my father^a, which consists of the learning of the Jews^b and the language of the Egyptians^c. 3 And I know that the record which I make is ^atrue; and I make it with mine own hand^a; and I make it according to my knowledge. 4 For it came to pass in the commencement of the ^afirst year of the reign of ^bZedekiah, king of Judah, (my father, Lehi, having dwelt at ^cJerusalem in all his days^a); and in that same year there came many ^dprophets, prophesying unto the people that they must ^erepent, or the great city ^fJerusalem must be destroyed^b. Joseph's Translation Joseph Smith translated directly from the Small Plates of Nephi into the common English of Joseph Smith's day, which in the Prophet Joseph Smith's learning included the language of the King James version of the Bible. Joseph Smith translated directly from the engravings of the prophet Nephi when he translated the first two books of Nephi.	2^a the language of my father It is of interest to note that Lehi would have been a bi-lingual man and that the primary language which it seems that Lehi spoke was Egyptian. Many of the Hebrews who had come out of Egypt maintained their Egyptian language, which was the 'international' languagge and Hebrew though being their historical language was but a second language to them. This explains how easy it was for the Jews to make an alliance with Egypt to confront their Babylonian subjection. 2^b the learning of the Jews The learning of the Jews would be that which was presented to them in the records of their fathers as had in the five books of Moses concerning the things of God and his dealings with man. It would also include those things of the prophets which had been preserved in those records as well. Thus Nephi and his brethren had been taught by their parents concerning God and the Law of Moses, which is the Law of God concerning the performances of Israel unto their God. And this would be the importance of obtaining the plates of brass, for they held upon them the words of God unto man. 2^c the language of the Egyptians The Israelites had learned Egyptian and maintained a dual language and learning at least in the higher houses. Perhaps more particularly did Lehi learn Egyptian, being of the house of Joseph of Egypt. And it is additionally of interest to note that the brass plates kept by the house of Laban, he also being of the House of Joseph, were kept and written in Egyptian. 3^a I make it with mine own hand Nephi's record is not based upon the hearsay of others. It is based upon Nephi's own words and his own first hand experiences. It is not like the Bible, which has been copied and recopied many times. The Bible has been variously compiled and edited with much being lost to the corruption of the Jews, either due to neglect or purposeful destruction. The Bible contains various degrees of added commentary which can make it difficult to ascertain whether the writings are the original prophet's or added by a later scribe with interpretive license. The Bible has no continuous string of recording prohets as does the Book of Mormon. The Small Plates of Nephi are straight from the prophets' own writings with only one inspired translation into common American English. The Bible has no such claim to it nearness to the original scripts of the original prophets. 4^a my father, Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days This very straight forward statement should end speculation that Lehi was a merchant which traveled internationally, for he 'dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days'. Also it should be noted that it states that Lehi dwelt 'at' Jerusalem, NOT 'in' Jerusalem. This would indicate that Lehi dwelt in the greater Land of Jerusalem so associated with that capital city, but NOT necessarily within its limited city limits. This seems to be confirmed by two facts, one that Lehi had a 'land of inheritance' and that to go there from Jerusalem, one would travel down (1 Nephi 3:16) to that land of inheritance as did Nephi and his brethren when they went to obtain their family's great wealth to trade for the plates of brass. 4^b in that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed When one considers this to be the year in which the Chaldeans under King Nebuchadnezzar had just again re-conquered and again subjected Jerusalem to the yoke of Babylon, one can not help but consider that the source of a number of these 'prophets' might be from that very source where Daniel is acting only second to the king and his three righteous companions are among the heads of state in the Babylonian empire. One of the strongest means of attempting to convince the Jews to yield unto the dominion of Babylon would be their own 'Jewish' prophets speaking unto them from the hierarcy of the Babylonian Empire. Could Daniel and or one or more of this three companions been numbered amoung these 'many' prophets' who come in that same year, the first year of the reign of King Zedekiah, being newly selected by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar? When one considers that the Jews were at this juncture re-committed at the temple, passing through the parts of the calf in ordinance covenant and that King Zedekiah required as a part of this submission the releasing of all Hebrew servants according to the Law of Moses, it seems almost certain that some great revival to the days of Zedekiah's father Josiah had been instituded and by the hand of such as the presure of King Nebuchadnezzar's presence and under the directing influence of the now foriegn and also Jewish prophet leaders of the state of Babylon, namely Daniel and his companions.	2^a Mosiah 1:4; Morm. 9:32-33 3^a 1 Ne. 14:30; 2 Ne. 25:20; Mosiah 1:6; Alma 3:12; Ether 5:3 (1-3) 4^a 1 Ne. 2:4; Mosiah 6:4 ^b 2 Kings 24:18; 2 Chr. 36:10; Jer. 37:1; Jer. 44;30; Jer. 49:34; Jer. 52:3-5; Omni 1:15 ^c 1 Chr. 9:3; 2 Chr. 15:9; Alma 7:10 ^d 2 Kings 17:13-15; 2 Chr. 36:15-16; Jer. 7:25; Jer. 26:20; TG Prophets, Mission of ^e TG Repentance ^f Jer. 26:18 (17-19); 2 Ne. 1:4; Hel. 8:20 TG Israel,Bondage of, in Other Lands; TG Jerusalem Learning of the Jews �The learning of the Jews, for many years, consisted in a knowledge of the Scriptures. These were the textbooks of all the instruction that was given in the schools of their Prophets. It was by means of this general knowledge of their law that those Jews who wandered from Judea into other countries carried with them and propagated certain ideas of the true God among all the civilized nations upon the face of the earth.� ~ Dr. Benjamin Rush
Pray The guiding principle of prayer is an all important one to remember. Communication with God, the Father of our Spirits is a primary principle of the Gospel. It is one which in time of trouble Lehi here turns unto God in prayer. It is that guiding principle whereby all and any of God's children may speak and appeal unto him.
5 Wherefore it came to pass that my father, Lehi^a, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord^a, yea, even with all his ^aheart, in behalf of his people^a. 6 And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a ^apillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did ^bquake and tremble exceedingly. A Historical Setting The inaugural year of King Zedekiah would have seen the presence of the forces of the Empire of Babylon with Zedekiah covenanting unto the King of Babylon. That this was a covenant sworn according to Judah's God and in his name may well have been more significant than just a single oath of alligence. Jeremiah 34 can be interpreted to imply that, like unto the days of Josiah, the people under King Zedekiah in this first year, were placed under temple covenant to again obey the laws of Jehovah and abid by the Law of Moses, which included the release of Hebrew slaves. It seems that under such renewal, King Zedekiah did dictate the immediate release of all Hebrew servants, for ever since the reign of Johiakim which lasted 11 years, there was likely no such release practiced by the people under that wicked king. But the rulers, the princes or the Sarim, would contend and evade under a interpretation of the Law of the Covenant, that from the time of the Covenant, for seven years from that time should the seven years unto release be practiced by them, thus allowing them to reclaim their servants for the next 7 year period. This seemd to be consistant with Jeremiah's condemnation of the Jews, that they had not lived the law of release, even after 7 more years had passed away, and thus the Lord by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah did charge the Jews with not keeping the Law, as Jeremiah came and prophesied and condemned them unto destruction in the eighth year of Zedekiah, thus sealing that destruction upon them ( See Jeremiah 34).	5^a Lehi ... prayed unto the Lord ... in behalf of his people It is of interest that Lehi did pray for his people and not just from his own self perspective. Besides the prophesying of the prophets what else contributed to Lehi's concern unto pray can only be comtemplated. Lehi had lived and was likely a young man in Israel in the days of the righteous King Josiah, Zedekiah's father when that righteous King above all other kings of Judah proceeded to destroy the altars of the false religions and restore the people to the true religion and the covenants of the Lord. Would Lehi's pray be that the people of Jerusalem might repent and return unto those righteous ways and days or would Lehi merely request a reprival from destruction? Lehi's obviously sincere pray which obtained an answer from God must have been in earnst that the people might repent and turn unto God. Though not stated but implied, during this sequence of visions and dreams, Lehi was called by God to go and prophesy unto the people, for it was by commandedment from God that Lehi so proceeded to testify to the people that they might come unto repentance.	5^a Jer. 29:13; James 5:16; 2 Ne. 4:24 (23-25) 6^a Ex. 13:21; Hel. 5:24 (24,43); D&C 29:12; JS-H 1:16, 30 ^b Isa. 6:5 (1-5)
Personal Revelation Though we are incouraged to follow the 'Brethren' in reference to our modern day prophet leaders, there is no substitute for the principle of 'personal revelation'. For in times of immediate need for instruction and care from the Lord, it is by one to one personal revelation that we are led. And that communicative link is preceded by that primary principle of personal prayer.
7 And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being ^aovercome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen. 8 And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a ^avision, even that he saw the ^bheavens open, and he thought he ^csaw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.	~	7^a Dan. 8:27 (26-27); Dan. 10:8-12; 1 Ne. 17:47; Alma 27:17; Moses 1:10 (9-10) 8^a 1 Ne. 3:18 (17-18); 1 Ne. 5:4; TG Vision ^b Ezek. 1:1; Acts 7:56 (55-56); 1 Ne. 11:14; Alma 36:22; Hel. 5:48 (45-49); D&C 137:1 ^c TG God, Manifestations of; TG God, Privilege of Seeing
9 And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his ^aluster was above that of the sun at noon-day. 10 And he also saw ^atwelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament. 11 And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth; and the first came and ^astood before my father, and gave unto him a ^bbook, and bade him that he should read.	~	9^a JS-H 1:17,30 (16-17, 30-32) 10^a TG Apostles 11^a 1 Sam. 3:10; D&C 110:2-3 ^b Ezek. 2:9-10; Rev.10:9(2-11)
Learning from God Comes by the Spirit of God
12 And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the ^aSpirit of the Lord. 13 And he read, saying: Wo, wo, unto Jerusalem, for I have seen thine ^aabominations! Yea, and many things did my father read concerning ^bJerusalem—that it should be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof; many should perish by the sword, and many should be ^ccarried away captive into Babylon. 14 And it came to pass that when my father had read and seen many great and marvelous things, he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as: Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy ^apower, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and, because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who ^bcome unto thee that they shall perish!	~	12^a Gen. 41:38; Mosiah 27:24; Alma 18:16; 13^a 2 Kings 24:19; 2 Chr. 36:14; Jer. 13:27 ^b 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Kings 24:2; Jer. 13:14; Ezek. 15:6 (6-8); 1 Ne. 2:13; 1 Ne. 3:17 ^c 2 Kings 20:17-18; Jer. 52:15(3-15) 2 Ne. 25:10; Omni 1:15; TG Babylon 14^a TG God, Power of ^b 2 Ne. 26:25 (24-28); Alma 5:34 (33-36); 3 Ne. 9:14 (13-14)
15 And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled, because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him. 16 And now I, Nephi, do not make a full account of the things which my father hath written^a, for he hath written many things^a which he saw in ^avisions and in ^bdreams; and he also hath written many things which he ^cprophesied and spake unto his children, of which I shall not make a full account. 17 But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days. Behold, I make an ^aabridgment of the record of my ^bfather^a, upon ^cplates which I have made with mine own hands; wherefore, after I have abridged the record of my ^dfather then will I make an account of mine own life. Metalurgy in Lehi's Family Now there seem to be at least three possible inlines into the entrance of metalurgy into the family of Lehi. First it may have been a part of Lehi's family from the time that they dwelt in Jerusalem. Certainly as holders of an inheritance of land outside the city walls of Jerusalem, like Boaz of old, Lehi would have had to have the need to have a multitude of skills or access to them. He had gold and silver and one may ask did he 'refine' and mold those metals as a part of his skills as well as other 'farm' type implements used upon his land. That Nephi became a skilled metalurgist while the elder Laman and Lemuel apparently did not might argue against the skills of metalurgy so being a 'family' skill. Secondly, there is Zoram and what skills and abilities he did bring to the group. Laban may well have been consumed in his being the Captain of the Sandhedrin's police and he may have deligated such 'record engraving' and 'brass plate supplying' to his trusted servant and 'scribe' of sorts to Zoram. Now whether Zoram refined the brass or secured the raw brass and formed it into matching quality plates of brass to match the ancient record in such things as adding the word of Jeremiah upon them may be an avenue of possiblity for these skills to have entered into the family of Lehi, the skills both of refining and forming plates and engraving them. Yet there is a third plausible source of the metalurgical skills which would also perhaps answer other questions such as the source of Nephi's steel bow. And that is the mines of Solomon or Timna and the ship building harbor of Elath/Eliat/Aqaba/Ezion-Geber, as the case may be. A close analysis of the Book of Mormon record reveals that Lehi's group did most likely live at the location of the valley of Lemuel for some 8 years. During this time Lehi an son may well have traveled the three day jouney back to that location to trade in good, seek necessities, including the gathering of seeds of all kinds and even in seeking some 'off season' employment either at the mines, refinery or even the ship yards of that internation trade port once made great by Solomon and still under the control and or supervision of the Ephraimite Assyrian confederation, though certainly subserviant to the Kingdom of Babylon. The Egyptian skill of making 'compound bows', that is laminating 'horn' withing the plys of wood to give added spring, power and stength to such bows would have been practiced. Might not an 'inovation' be made of in the case of some 'special rare' bow manufacture with the rear iron ore metal being pounded in folding over stripe of ore upon stripe of ore introducing the strengthening carbon element to the ore to form carbonized steel; could that unique item then be used in such as King David's 'steel bow' as well as Nephi's 'steel bow' as the center critical ply in place of the 'horn' of an animal to provide even greater strength, power and spring to Nephi's bow? What as cost it may have been for Nephi to earn such means to aquire such a unique and selectively produced product as a 'steel bow', lamiated in its structure though it many well have been.	16^a my father hath written ... many things Often we here of the Book of Lehi, that it was that which was contained upon the 116 pages that were lost. Now that was not the same as the 'writings of Lehi' mentioned here. For the Book of Mormon was abridged from the Large Plates of Nephi and it was Nephi who made and engraved that record. And while that record well could and most likely did contain many of the things which Lehi had written, being either retold or transcribed from Lehi's writings as it states that Nephi did make an abridgement thereof upon his plates, it is not the same as Lehi's actual complete writtings, for Lehi never did write upon the two sets of plates prepared by Nephi which were commanded of Nephi to prepare by the voice of the Lord. Now whether Lehi's actual writings remained with the Nephites or not, and upon what medium Lehi did write is not given. 17^a the record of my father Now in simplistic consideration it has been surmised that Mormon made his abridgement from the large plates of Nephi and for the most part he did. But Mormon also references other records which he consulted in the making of his abrigement and it would seem in the consideration of greater detail upon this matter Mormon consulted more than just the large plates of Nephi. There is the 'record of Zeniff' and that of Alma the elder which is stated and must have been referenced in preparing the surmized abridgment which wove the people of Zeniff, Noah, Limhi and Alma into the Book of Mormon abridged and condensed record. And toward the end, Mormon did abridge his own larger record which he had first engraven upon the large plates of Nephi. But this is one more consideration to undertake as to the make up of the structure of the Book of Mormon and its sources in detail, and that is the 'Record of Lehi'. Lehi's record was engraven upon plates, Lehi's own plates. Now whether Lehi was also a metalurgist as was Nephi or did rely of his son Nephi's or some other such as Zoram or even himself to so provide himself plates to record his own record upon is a question that may be speculated upon but the information supplied is truly not enough to make a conclusion upon it. Yet we do know from the original preface supplied in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon that the 'one hundred and sixteen pages, the which [Mormon] took from the Book of Lehi, [was] an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon'. Many 'quick study artists' have concluded that those first 116 pages were taken from the first part of the large plates of Nephi. This is not the case according to the original preface statement that they were taken from 'Lehi's plates' which when abridged did constitute the book of Lehi. Now Nephi did make his own abridgement of Lehi's book which he placed as a part of his small plates but no where does it ever state that Nephi retold, transfered or abridged the 'plates of Lehi' onto as a part of the large plates of Nephi. Rather the implication is quite the opposite when it speaks of the large plates of Nephi as a record concerning the reign of the Nephite kings beginning with Nephi. We know very little of just what detail was upon the 116 pages taken from the Book or plates record of Lehi. A couple of items that has come down thanks to Erastus Snow, one of the early Apostles, is that it gave the linage of Ishmael as being of Ephraim, that Ishmaels sons had married Lehi's concluded elder two daughters for they already had families with children when Lehi's sons came and brought them down into the wilderness to join the Lehi group. And it was taught there in the record of Lehi that this mixing of the sons and daughters of the descendants of Manasseh and of Ephraim was in fulfillment of the prophecy blessing of those two sons by Jacob in Genesis 48 verse 16 which states: 'And let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitufe in the midst of the earth.' One day we will have all those records, including the unabridged plates/record of Lehi. One may speculate just what is written in Lehi's record, whether he begins with his youth under the influence of the great righteoud King Josiah which would be logical to be a setting upon which Lehi would frame his own story, or just when else Lehi may have began his own story, perhaps with that call by God to be a prophet of God and so testify against the people of Jerusalem.	16^a Ezek. 1:1; JS-H 1:24 (21-25) ^b 1 Ne. 8:2 (2-38) ^c 1 Ne. 7:1 17^a 1 Ne. 9:2 (2-5); Enos 1:13 (13, 15-18); TG Scriptures, Writing of ^b 1 Ne. 6:1 (1-3); 1 Ne. 8:29 (29-30); 1 Ne. 19:1 (1-6) ^c 1 Ne. 10:15 ^d 2 Ne. 4:14; 2 Ne. 5:33 (29-33); D&C 10:42 I Make an Abridgement One must fully consider just what we have in our Book of Mormon of today. It the orignial Book of Mormon it was explained that the lost 116 pages constituted the 'Book of Lehi'. But take what is said in vers 17, as Mormon did but abrige the large plates of Nephi, we must first consider that that Book of Lehi of the 116 pages was but Nephi's abridgement, and thence Mormon's own further abridgement of Nephi's abridgement. And if that is all which was upon the 116 pages was 'Lehi's Book', then we do not have any of what comes next of Mormon's abridgement from the Large Plates of Nephi, for Nephi says that after that abridgement of his father's record then he would next 'make an account of mine own life'. Thus we do not have Nephi's account, Mormon's abridgement of it, of Nephi's own life. We do not have Nephi's Book from the large plates of Nephi, neither do we have anything else of Mormon's large plate abridgement even down and until where the large plates did correspond with and to the end of the small plates of Nephi, also called Jacob's record as Jacob, Hephi's brother did so continue that record. So what is actually missed due to the lost 116 page is not only the 116 pages of the book of Lehi. We also have Nephi's book, and any and all other such 'books' of the kings of the Nephites down and until the time of Mosiah's son King Benjamin, for that is were the translation of the Book of Mormon plates picks back up after the translation of the small plates of Nephi and Mormon's brief one chapter tie-in to where they fit in respect to the rest of Mormon's larger abridgement of the large plates of Nephi. It well could be that the book of Lehi ranged back in time as far as Lehi's days and times as a youth being influenced by the events taking place in the days of King Josiah and his sons down to and including King Zedekiah.
		It was common among the Jews that those who did speak before the people would address them in their 'public' places, in their Synagogue, the common outer court of the Temple, at the city gates and a very prime place would be at the temple gates from whench Jermiah also addressed the people. In these places Lehi would have come in full scrutiny of the eyes and ears of the 'Sarim', the leading Elders of the Church, the Sanhedrin. This would have been the case with all the prophets and as it was with Jesus Christ in his day.
18 Therefore, I would that ye should know, that after the Lord had shown so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the ^adestruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people, and began to ^bprophesy^a and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard. 19 And it came to pass that the ^aJews^a did ^bmock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their ^cwickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a ^dMessiah, and also the redemption of the world. 20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him^a; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had ^acast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also ^bsought his life^b, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender ^cmercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of ^ddeliverance. Prophets Witness Messiah's Coming The message of all the prophets of God is concerning the Plan of God unto the salvation of God's children. Thus all have taught concerning the coming of the Messiah. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses and all the prophets have taught plainly concerning the coming and mission of the Messiah (Moses 6,7,8; Abraham; Zechariah 3, Acts 26:22-23 & Book of Mormon, etc.). Why then is the Old Testament so vacant of such plain teachings concerning the coming of Jesus Christ? They are there and can be gleaned from the scriptural pages but the plainness is missing due to the rejection of those teaching by the Jews. They rejected the prophet's message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they did persecute, stone and murder the prophets. And the plain words of the prophets concerning Jehovah as Jesus Christ are subdued and not had as clearly and plainly as they are in the plates of brass and the Book of Mormon. Certainly Lehi was not the only prophet who had seen the visions and received the messages of the coming Christ to be taught to the people. But as the Jews did to Lehi because of he teaching plainly concerning the Messiah, they did to all the holy prophets from Abel to Zacharias the father of John (TPJS p. 223 & Matthew 23:35, 36), as well as John the Baptist himself and even the very Messiah, Jesus Christ when he was come. And for this teaching that the Jews needed to repent and come unto Christ, the Messiah, else Jerusalem would be destoryed; was Lehi's own life sought by the Jews. This was the message of the Messiah which the Jews did kill and murder the prophets for.	18^a he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy Lehi did not just decide to go out of his own iniative. Lehi was commanded by God to go and warn and prophesy before the Jews. This is not recored in Nephi's abridgement at this point but it is stated in 1 Nephi 2:1. 'No man takes this honor unto himself unless he is called of God (see Hebrew 5;4). Lehi had been called and ordained of God by power and authority to go out and preach to the Jews. He was a prophet of God. 19^a the Jews While in one sense, Lehi and his family lived among the Jews and as such Lehi's family was called as being of the Jews, Lehi was not of the tribe of Judah. Lehi was of the tribe of Joseph of Egypt. And his family had maintained that distinction from Nephi's later perspective. Thus here and in the next verse, Nephi seems to distinguish the fact that it is 'the Jews' who are now to be taken captive compared to the bulk and identity of the other 10 tribes, who had already been take captive and scattered beginning in 721 BC. 20^a when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him Now these 'Jews' who had such power to take action under the 'law' would have been the same group of Jews which had taken action against the Jesus Christ. It was not the common people who had powers to 'cast out', 'stone' and 'slain' the prophets withour the redress of law, it was the 'ruling Jews' of the people, their Elders, those of the ruling Sanhedrin or the Jewish religious courts of the day who could make such a ruling and take such an action against such a leading citizen as Lehi in the community. 20^b they also sought his life Who are 'they'? The simple general answer is the Jews. But that is also the simple general answer concerning the Christ and who sought to take away his life. But not all the Jews in either case can be assume, but only those who had such authority that they might negate the law and circumvent it to their purposes unto the taking of one's life. And that particular group of Jews would be as Jeremiah stated the rulers and princes of the Jews. In Jesus day this would have been the same as the ruling body known as the Sanhedrin. In Jesus day the Sanhedrin had it own officers of enforcement as was in the days of Lehi. A captain of fifty would do. And one such Captain of Fifty did so attend to the affairs of the elders of Israel, that is the princes and rulers of the 'church' or the Sanhedrin. That one officer of the city was none other than Laban as Laman and Lemuel spoke of Laban and his fifty.	18^a 2 Ne. 25:9; D&C 5:20; ^b TG Prophets, Mission of TG Prophets, Rejection of 19^a TG Apostasy of Israel ^b 2 Chr. 36:16; Jer. 25:4 (1-4); Ezek. 5:6 (45-49); 1 Ne. 2:13; 1 Ne. 7:14 ^c 1 Ne. 17:22 ^d TG Jesus Christ, Prophecies 20^a Jer. 13:11; Hel. 13:24-28 ^b Jer. 11:19; 1 Ne. 2:2 (1-4); TG Prophets, Rejection of ^c Gen. 32:10; Alma 34:38; D&C 46:15 ^d TG Deliverance Rulers and Princes "Gahter unto seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; ... that they may stand with thee." ~ Numbers 11:16 When Moses called upon the Lord to seek for assistance in administering the affairs of the people of the children of Israel, the Lord had Moses gather 70 of the select elders of Israel out from among the people. Under the direction of Moses it would be this group of 70 which would help judge the people and rule over them according to the Laws of Moses. This same organization of rules was maintained throughout Judeaism down and until the time of Christ when at that time the 'Jewish senate' as referred to in Roman terminology would see to and rule over the Jews according to the Laws of the Jews which were the traditional laws, even the Laws of Moses. That same order of 70 elders, priests and scribes were headed and lead by the Chief High Priest making a council of 71 referred to as the Sanhedrin. In Lehi's time this would have been the empowered rulers who would have had authority to seek the life of an individual legally. And as in the time of Christ when they did seek after the life of Christ for declaring himself the Son of God among other things, so in the days of Lehi had these same rulers or princes of the people so persecuted the prophets especially those who did declare Jesus Christ, the coming Son of God as did Lehi. The plates of brass has various prophets who speak of the coming Son of God but the Jewish Old Testament does not. The reason being that the Jews, this leading body of the Jews, did so pursecute and murder the prophets even down until the murders of Zacharias the father of John the Baptist (Matthew 23:35 & TPJS 222-223 & 261). When Christ spoke of the 'Jews' who opposed him, he spoke concerning the rulers of the Jews, the Sanhedrin which operated under the direction of the chief high priest. So also when Nephi in his record speaks of those Jews who sought Lehi's life with authority he is speaking of this same group of Jewis rulers whom Jeremiah also spoke concerning as those who even had authority over the king Zedekiah (Jer. 38).