Book of Mormon (Plain English Version)/1 Nephi/Chapter 2

Lehi's family leaves Jerusalem...
(compare 1 Nephi, chapter 2)

The Lord said to my father in a dream,

"I bless you because you faithfully told the people the things I commanded you to tell them. However, because of this, they are planning to kill you. To escape them, take your family into the wilderness."

Lehi obeyed the Lord and left his home, lands, gold, silver and treasures, taking only his family, tents and supplies into the wilderness.

Note: During the thousand year history of Lehi and his descendants, there are six accounts of a Lehi type exodus. These accounts illustrate how the Lord tells His servants to take their people and "depart into the wilderness." In each exodus account, the righteous people leave their prideful, power-seeking brethren who have sinned against light and knowledge and have brought themselves under condemnation.

These examples are a type for a latter-day exodus, as prophesied by Isaiah. (2 Nephi 8:10-11, 16:12, 20:20-21, 21:15-16). The other five exodus accounts are found in 2 Nephi 5:5, Omni 1:13, Mosiah 18:34, 22:11, and Alma 27:11-4. A seventh took place in 2,200 BC (Ether 1:39-42)

Our family consisted of my father Lehi, my mother Sariah, my older brothers, Laman, Lemuel and Sam, and myself. We traveled south into the wilderness, down the shoreline of the Red Sea.

After traveling three days, we pitched our tents in a valley near a river. Here my father built an altar of stones, made an offering and gave thanks to the Lord.

The valley where we camped was at the mouth of the river that flowed into the Red Sea. My father named the river after Laman and said to him, "I pray you will be like this river, always flowing into the fountain of all righteousness!"

Then my father told Lemuel, "I pray you will be like this valley, firm, steadfast and immovable in keeping the Lords commandments!"

My father said these things because Laman and Lemuel were both very stubborn. They kept complaining, saying my father was a foolish, visionary man, and that he'd taken them from all their comforts and wealth to die in the wilderness.

They complained because they knew nothing about how God deals with His children, and also because they were the oldest sons, feeling they had the right to complain. Like the Jews, they thought the great city of Jerusalem could not be destroyed.

However, Lehi, being filled with the Spirit, spoke to them with the Lord's power. This caused them to shake for fear of His judgments, and for a little while they stopped complaining.

Lehi and his family camped in the valley he had named Lemuel.

Although very young, I had great desires to know God's will. And so I prayed with faith and the Lord gave me understanding. That's why I didn't rebel against my father.

I told my older brother Sam what the Lord had told me by His Holy Spirit, and Sam believed me. But Laman and Lemuel didn't believe me, and in my sorrow over their stubbornness, I prayed for the.

The Lord answered my prayer, saying,

"You are blessed, Nephi, because of your faith and humility before me. I have prepared the best land on earth for you, and if