Book of Mormon (Plain English Version)/1 Nephi/Chapter 3

When my father heard this, he was very glad, knowing I had been blessed by the Lord.

Then my three older brothers and I took our tents and traveled back to Jerusalem

Upon arriving in Jerusalem, we talked about how to get the brass plates from Laban. We cast lots to know who should go into Laban's house and talk with him. The lot fell upon Laman, so he went in and talked with Laban as he sat in his house,

Laman asked Laban for the brass plates, which contained my father's genealogy. Laban became angry and threw Laman out of his house, shouting, "You're a robber, and I'll kill you!" But Laman escaped, ran back and told us what happened.

We became very discouraged and my brothers were about to return to my father in the wilderness, but I told them, "As the Lord lives, and as we live, we will not go back to our father until we have accomplished the Lord's command.

Let us be faithful like our father, who gave up all his wealth to obey the Lord. Our father knows this city will be destroyed because the people here are so wicked. They have rejected the words of the prophets.

If our father had also rejected the word of the Lord, which told him to leave, then our entire family would still be here and would die. This is why we had to leave.

In His wisdom, the Lord told us to come back here for the records so we can preserve the language of our forefathers and the words of the holy prophets who have spoken by the Spirit and power of God since the world began until now."

By saying these things I persuaded my brothers to be more faithful so that we could accomplish our task.

Then we went back to our home in Jerusalem to gather our gold, silver and treasures to take to Laban's house.

This time we all went into Laban's house and told him we would like to buy the brass plates with our gold, silver and treasures.

When Laban saw our great wealth, he was determined to have it. Being very cunning and greedy, Laban drove us out of his house and called his servants to kill us.

In order to escape the servants, we had to drop our property, run into the wilderness and hide in a cave. After resting in the cave, Laman and Lemuel became very angry with me, and also with our father for telling us to get the plates. They started beating Sam and me with a stick.

Then an angel of the Lord came and stood before them and asked,

"Why are you beating your younger brother? Do you not know the Lord has chosen him to be your ruler because of your sins? Now go back to Jerusalem and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands."

After saying this, the angel left, after which Laman and Lemuel asked, "How can the Lord deliver Laban into our hands? Laban commands fifty servants, who could kill fifty men, and there are only four of us!"