1 AND it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did make plates of ore that I might engraven upon them the record of my people. And upon the plates which I made I did engraven the record of my father, and also our journeyings in the wilderness, and the prophecies of my father; and also many of mine own prophecies have I engraven upon them.

2 And I knew not at the time when I made them that I should be commanded of the Lord to make these plates; wherefore, the record of my father, and the genealogy of his fathers, and the more part of all our proceedings in the wilderness are engraven upon those first plates of which I have spoken; wherefore, the things which transpired before I made these plates are, of a truth, more particularly made mention upon the first plates.

3 And after I had made these plates by way of commandment, I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain [ In Hebrew means that path that is laid out before you. So he is saying you need to find the path. ] and precious [ In Hebrew these are considered your betrothal gifts, or the gifts that are given you to help prepare you and bring you to the bridegroom. ] parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the things which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other wise purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord.

4 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did make a record upon the other plates, which gives an account, or which gives a greater account of the wars and contentions and destructions of my people. And this have I done, and commanded my people what they should do after I was gone; and that these plates should be handed down from one generation to another, or from one prophet to another, until further commandments of the Lord.

5 And an account of my making these plates shall be given hereafter; and then, behold, I proceed according to that which I have spoken; and this I do that the more sacred things may be kept for the knowledge of my people.

6 Nevertheless, I do not write anything upon plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if I do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other men, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself.

7 For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught [ This could have come from the Book Of Jubilees 1:14 where the Lord warned of the forsaking of his ordinances and covenants perpetrated by the scribes against the people. When Nephi says that "others set at naught and trample" the truth "under their feet" he is referring to the Shieha: "They set the very God of Israel) at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels." As is taught here. In Jubiles, the Lord is very upset that the "festivals of [His] covenant, and (His) sabbaths, and [His] holy place" have been corrupted. This makes it sound like the calendar, the Sabbaths and especially the temple are paramount. Deuteronomy begrudgingly keeps the temple, but also centralizes all temple worship in Jerusalem. If the temple can't be done away with completely, at least control it by proximity and get the revenues. Deuteronomy shuffled "the Law" to the top of the deck. If the Beatles were seventh century BC musicians in the court of Josiah, they might sing, "All you need is Law." Yet, the very "keepers of the Torah" are condemned in the Book of Jubilees, so, not surprisingly, it was voted off the island and removed from the canon. All the books that clearly predicted or remember and condemned this great forsakening were erased. Nephi lays it out plain as day when he says, "For I, Nephi, have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews; for their works were works of darkness, and their doings were doings of abominations: authors of the Stick of Judah were in apostasy, and all we have are what the tell us about the Law, then the blind are leading the blind. ] and trample under their feet. Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet; I say, trample under their feet but I would speak in other words—they set him at naught, and hearken [ Hebrew "Shema" is translated here as hearkenwhich means to "listen" and "obey". ] not to the voice of his counsels.

8 And behold he cometh, according to the words of the angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem.

9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

10 And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, [ This is a reference to a specific means of death. Who is Neum and why is there no record of him or this prophecy in the Old Testament? Not only will this Messiah suffer, says Nephi but According to the lost prophetess Neum, the Son of God should be "cucified, according to the words of Neum. "Where do we find this in the old testament? Not even in Isaiah. But we do learn about it in the non-canonical Ascension of Isaiah, however, in this text Isaiah reveals that this suffering is fatal: And the god of that world will stretch forth his hand against the Son, and they will crucify Him on a tree, and will slay Him not knowing who He is. (Ascension 9:14) Isaiah makes clear that they will not know who He is. On the cross, the Lord Himself uttered, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Was He thinking of the Great Forsakening? The Herodian Jews crucified the Lord, that's true, but they did it because the scribes of centuries before had sabotaged their scriptures. The crucifixion was the result of wheels set in motion six centuries before. According to the apocryphal History of John, they should have known. In that book, Adam recites the crucifixion prophecy: I beseeched my Lord and said: 'Grant me to enter paradise another time in my life. And God said to me: Not so, forefather, but go and till the soil from which thou wast made, and I shall come after six thousand years... I shall be tormented, crucified, buried, and I shall rise up after three days.' (History of John 1:8) ] and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, [ Nephi says Zenos preached the burial prophecy. The God of our fathers would "be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos." Just as Nephi was reading Zenos, perhaps Zenos was reading the Egyptian Life of Adam and Eve, which says: And this sign, O Adam, will happen to Me at My coming on earth: Satan will raise the people of the Jews to put Me to death; and they will lay Me in a rock, and seal a large stone over Me, and I shall remain within that rock three days and three nights. (Egyptian Life 49:8) The apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah echoes the same prophecy: He should before the sabbath be crucified upon the tree, and should be crucified together with wicked men, and that He should be buried in the sepulchre.(Ascension 3:4) ] which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel.

11 For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God [ Hebrew - Yahweh ( or Jehovah which means "to become" or "to exist") translated as Lord; Elohim translated as God ("the Gods") which together the words mean "He will cause Gods to be". ] surely shall visit all the house of Israel [ This included the Jews who would crucify him, the Nephites who were given first earthquakes and tempests before his visit as well as the Lost Ten tribes. ] at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, [ The key to how each of them get to see him. ] unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up.

12 And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos. [ So we know that Zenos was a prophet somewhere between Lehi and Manasseh. But when Lehi describes the four main sections of the plates, he doesn't mention the genealogy. This could be because the second section, the record of the Jews down to Zedekiah, was the genealogy, with additional history added in, similar to the first five chapters of Chronicles. The genealogy on the brass plates would not have needed to be very long, because the earliest parts of the genealogy would have been contained in the five books of Moses. Lehi merely had to get back to Manasseh, his forefather, twenty-one generations prior. That sounds like a lot, except that the chronicler covers eight of those generations in just five verses. As it survives in our Stick of Judah, the descendants of Manasseh are traced by name through approximately 1250 BC, when Israel settled in Canaan. Eight "begats" covered 350 years. Not bad. That leaves about thirteen "begats" to get from the conquest of Canaan to Lehi's parents. That's a lay-up for ancient Israelite genealogists. Amid Lehi's inescapable "begats" appeared the prophets Zenock and Zenos. The author of 3 Nephi 10 says that the Nephites "are a remnant of [the] seed" of Zenos and Zenock. Scholars have searched for Zenos and Zenock for decades to partial success. Notice Lehi describes the record as "a record of the Jews." He does not say "a record of the Israelites," or "a record of the Manassites." Why not? Despite descending from the Northern tribe of Manasseh, Lehi's ancestors probably migrated to live among the Jews around 926 BC, 325 years after the end of the first section on the brass plates. This means the brass plates should have contained Northern history for 325 years, and then Jewish history from 926 BC to Lehi around 600 BC, another 325 years (two strangely symmetrical periods for whatever cosmic reason(or about 6 generations in the Northern Kingdom and another 6 in the Southern Kingdom among the Jews). So then Lehi's genealogy only needed to cover about 6 generation to get him back to Manasseh and then maybe another 6 more to get him to the end of the Torah. So only a few dozen lines of Genealogy. ] And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers.

13 And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel.

14 And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations.

15 Nevertheless, when that day cometh, saith the prophet, that they no more turn aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember the covenants which he made to their fathers.

16 Yea, then will he remember the isles of the sea; yea, and all the people who are of the house of Israel, will I gather in, saith the Lord, according to the words of the prophet Zenos, from the four quarters of the earth.

17 Yea, and all the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord, saith the prophet; every nation, kindred, tongue and people shall be blessed.

18 And I, Nephi, have written these things unto my people, that perhaps I might persuade them that they would remember the Lord their Redeemer.

19 Wherefore, I speak unto all the house of Israel, [ So all twelve tribes of Israel. ] if it so be that they [ All twelve tribes. So as Nephi is beginning to bring forward in his writings the writings of Isaiah he wants it to be known that his message pertains to the entire house of Israel, and not just his people who are in America. ] should obtain these things. [ The Book Of Mormon. ]

20 For behold, I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak, for those who are at Jerusalem; for had not the Lord been merciful, to show unto me concerning them, even as he had prophets of old, I should have perished also.

21 And he surely did show unto the prophets of old all things concerning them; and also he did show unto many concerning us; wherefore, it must needs be that we know concerning them [ Both the Jews and the lost ten tribes. ] for they are written upon the plates of brass.

22 Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, did teach my brethren these things; and it came to pass that I did read many things to them, which were engraven upon the plates of brass, that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old.

23 And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; [ Which included the covenants pertaining to the people. ] but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us [ Note he is going to begin to quote Isaiah in the next chapter - so he suggests that in order to understand Isaiah that you needs to liken the scriptures to your life to things that you know. He will repeat this phrase in the next verse. Nephi will suggest that we need to see if we are to understand symbols - see 2 Ne 11:8. So we need to ask how do I see that symbol in my life? How is it like anything that I know or see around me? We need to build a connection with what he is saying. ], that it might be for our profit and learning.

24 Wherefore I spake unto them, saying: Hear ye the words of the prophet, [ Isaiah. ] ye who are a remnant of the house of Israel, a branch who have been broken off; hear ye the words of the prophet, [ Isaiah. ] which were [ The Jews and all of the other tribes, including those who would have been lost at the time of Nephi's writing this. Nephi will begin his writings of Isaiah as taken from chapter 48 - 49 of Isaiah which is really one long vision. See 1 Ne 20:1-2. ] written unto all the house of Israel, and liken them unto yourselves, [ Repeated from the previous verse. So if you are reading them then now is the time that they were prepared for. Our day, our generation. Because we are the generation in that they will be fulfilled. ] that ye may have hope as well as your brethren from whom ye have been broken off; for after this manner has the prophet written.