1 BEHOLD, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God, because of the anger of my brethren.

2 But behold, their anger did increase against me, insomuch that they did seek to take away my life.

3 Yea, they did murmur against me, saying: Our younger brother thinks to rule over us; and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to rule over this people.

4 Now I do not write upon these plates all the words which they murmured against me. But it sufficeth me to say, that they did seek to take away my life.

5 And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me, that I, Nephi, should depart [Why does the Lord have them leave? Why not have them stay and continue to try to help Laman and Lemuel and their families? sometimes we have to just get away in order to really grow, sometimes our surrounding can hold us back.in addition to the danger faced by Nephi. It has to do with the influence that Laman and Lemuel and their lifestyle might have on the others who went with Nephi. If you notice the Lord usually just leads the righteous away, anything else would cause a fight. Lehi was simply lead away, now the same thing here with Nephi. Same thing happened with Abraham. ] from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me.

6 Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken [ Hebrew "Shema" is translated here as hearken which means to "listen" and "obey". ] unto my words.

7 And we did take our tents [ It would appear that they have not built any permanent structures at this time. In v 15 they start to build. ] and whatsoever things were possible for us, and did journey in the wilderness for the space of many days. And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents.

8 And my people would that we should call the name of the place Nephi; wherefore, we did call it Nephi.

9 And all those who were with me did take upon them to call themselves the people of Nephi.

10 And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things, according to the law of Moses. [ This shows the character they had. They had the law of Moses from the brass plates. They did not have the higher order as that was lost to the children of Israel from Moses down until the time of John the Baptist. ]

11 And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind.

12 And I, Nephi, had also brought the records which were engraven upon the plates of brass; and also the ball, or compass, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord, according to that which is written.

13 And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land.

14 And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.

15 And I did teach my people to build buildings, [Was the teaching in the manner of how to construct a building, or that they should build buildings as a sign of permanence? How could Joseph Smith have known? Cognates are related words that come from the same root. For example, the English noun student is cognate to the verb study and the adjective studious. In Hebrew, a verb is sometimes followed by a noun that is a cognate, such as "wrote upon it a writing" (Exodus 39:30) and "she vowed a vow" (1 Samuel 1:11). In English, cognates are used much less often. Using such cognates is often considered an awkward or inelegant style in English. someone writing in English would be more likely to use "she vowed" or "she made a vow." Even in translation from the Hebrew, the King James Bible sometimes avoids using cognates. In Genesis 1:11, a literal translation of the Hebrew would be "Let the earth grass grass," but the English translation reads "Let the earth bring forth grass." The Book of Mormon uses cognates much more often than we would expect if the book had originally been written in English. These cognates show the Hebrew influence of the original. "build buildings" - instead of erect buildings or simply build. (The Maxwell Institute - Hebrew Background of the Book Of Mormon - http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=72&chapid=862) ] ] and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, [ How could Joseph Smith have known? Hebrew uses conjunctions much more frequently than English does. One clear example of this can be found in lists of items. In English, the conjunction and is normally used only before the last item in a list, such as wood, iron, copper, and brass. But Hebrew usually uses a conjunction before each item. The Book of Mormon contains many examples of this Hebrew-like usage, such as this one found here: "in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores." This kind of repetition is so prominent in the Book of Mormon that Professor Haim Rabin, President of the Hebrew Language Academy and a specialist in the history of the Hebrew language, once used a passage from the Book of Mormon in a lecture in English to illustrate this principle, because, he explained, it was a better illustration than passages from the English Bible. Such repetition seems to be a waste of precious space on the plates, except for the fact that it is required by the Hebrew language. ] which were in great abundance.

16 And I, Nephi, did build a temple; [Does Nephi build it by himself? What dedication. ] and I did construct it after the manner [ The building of solomon's Temple was of epic proportions, the workers were supported by a large society with great wealth and a specialized workforce, cf. 1 Kings 6-7. Obviously, the temple built by Nephi was only patterned after solomon's and couldn't have been made of cut stones, worked timbers, and gold ornaments. By "manner of construction" One would assume then that Nephi's version was composed of a series of courts with an altar at the center, the altar probably being the most ornate piece in the temple. They had the brass plates and as a result they had all of the measurements and placement of things to build a temple like the temple of Solomon(this was an Aaronic temple). ] of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto solomon’s temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.

17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.

18 And it came to pass that they would that I should be their king. But I, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, I did for them according to that which was in my power.

19 And behold, the words of the Lord had been fulfilled unto my brethren, [ Or in other words Nephi is testifying that his brothers who would not honor their covenants with the Lord are doing in relation to us who are keeping the covenants of God. ] which he spake concerning them, that I should be their ruler and their teacher. Wherefore, I had been their ruler and their teacher, according to the commandments of the Lord, until the time they sought to take away my life.

20 Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord.[ Nephi is the prophet, Laman and Lemuel and their families are going their separate ways, they are choosing to not follow the prophet, the one who is to provide instruction from the Lord. In ancient times a contract was cut "beruit". It was a chance of ownership, like the sale of sheep let's say. When the contract/covenant was made the sale was complete and the sheep now had a new owner. If the covenant or contract was later broken it was considered "cut off" or it had come to an end. Hebrew "Shema" is translated here as hearken which means to "listen" and "obey". For their disobedience, the Lamanites were, just like Adam and Eve, cut off from God’s presence. ] And behold, they were cut off from his presence. [ God honors their agency and says, "Okay, you don't want to accept my prophet and you don't want to follow what he says. I get it. We'll let you end the covenant and I will let you guys be a separate group." ]

21 And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, [ What is the cursing? see verse 20 they were cut off from his presence. ] yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. [ Because of the character that they have chosen to develop ] For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; [ A reference to just how hard their hearts had become - like flint. Flint is a very hard dark rock, or it can also be used proverbially to mean anything that's hard. And because of its rigidness, flint does not submit or blend with any other substances. Here's Nephi trying to explain what he has been dealing with. Their hearts are so hard that unity is not possible with them, they will break before they will ever bend. ] wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. [ You don't have to read it as a reference to skin pigmentation, that there's lots of other very plausible and well researched, and based in Nephi context and ancient Israelite context ways of reading this. So let's start with white. Scholars who've looked at the use of white in the Book of Mormon have found that in every instance it's used metaphorically, and it refers to purity and the amount of revelation or the amount of light and understanding somebody has, and that this actually isn't a reference to skin pigmentation. In like terms, they've often looked at skin of blackness as metaphorical. So this is not a reference to someone's skin tone. It has to do with their lack of revelation, their lack of understanding, their lack of light, knowledge, their lack of closeness to God. The purpose was so that Nephi's people could see that they were dealing with a Lamanite readily. So how else can a skin be placed on someone to be able to detect that? You can just look at some peoples countenance and see it right. I do not know what this all means but I am careful to not just jump on the pigmentation bandwagon either. It was obvious, that was the reson for it but beyond that I am not sure. There's an argument from some that this might be a reference to clothing, that the skin is animal skin, not human skin, and that the Lamanites are dressing in a particular way to suggest that they're not part of the Nephite culture, and that they do things differently than the Nephites, which is an interesting argument. There's also scholars who've been arguing that this is skin paint, that they're painting themselves. Again, to indicate that they're from a different group, and that they're separate from the Nephites. And then one of the things that I argue with the covenant perspective, is that this is possibly tattooing, and that the Lamanites want to identify themselves as separate from Jehovah. Doing a litle research on tattoos, you can find that in Egyptian there is no hieroglyph for tattoo. So you can't explain it with its own image. Egyptian is hieroglyphic, meaning you're writing with pictures. There is no word for tattoo. One of my arguments is, well try being Nephi and explaining what happened when you don't have a word to use. So what would you do? You would try and describe it. Now, some of you might know that the word tattoo originates from James Cook, the great explorer of the 17th, 18th centuries. And when he went over to Tahiti for the first time and landed there, they have a culture of tattooing. So imagine being Nephi with no word to use. What would you describe it as inlaying the color of black into your skin? A skin of blackness. So we may just be dealing with a difficulty in expressing the idea here, and Nephi is doing his best. And when we translate it into English, it comes out as the skin of blackness, and then we interpret it from our racially motivated perspective, as something that maybe he never intended it to mean. Who was this skin color for? - the righteous, to perserve the covenant - it was there so as that the seed of those who were cut off would not be attractive to those who were favored of the Lords. This is not meant to be racist; we need to remember the man who's writing this is the same man who wrote 2 Nephi chapter 26 verse 33 where he wrote this, Nephi, "he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness. He denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female, he remembereth the heathen and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." This is the same prophet saying these things. Prophets affirm in our day that dark skin is not a sign of divine disfavor or cursing. President Russell M. Nelson declared, "I assure you that your standing before God is not determined by the color of your skin. Favor or disfavor with God is dependent upon your devotion to God and his commandments." That's from his talk Let God Prevail, October 2020, General Conference. This was done by God to try to keep those who might make a choice to understand that marrying such would come with the penalty that they did not have the covenant as well (vs 23). How could Joseph Smith have known? When English shows a possessive or descriptive relationship between two nouns, it usually puts the possessive or descriptive noun first: the king's house or wood house. Hebrew, however, uses the opposite order: house the king (which would usually be translated house of the king) or house wood (house of wood). If the Hebrew word order is kept in the English translation, the word of must be added, even though it does not exist in the Hebrew. One of a large number of what appear to be translations from the Hebrew preserving the Hebrew word order: "skin of blackness" instead of black skin (The Maxwell Institute - Hebrew Background of the Book Of Mormon - http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=72&chapid=862)]

22 And thus saith 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". ] I will cause [ God will cause as a result of their actions. What is the natural cause/effect associated with not wanting to follow God? Spiritual laziness, I don't care about God or what he wants, if there even is a God. ] that they shall be loathsome [ Loathsome is a trait of character it is behavioral and not something related to how people look. Think about it for a minute "Loathsome" in a gospel sense would mean what? Well it would simply mean that they do not want to do what they need to do to change their character to be like the character that God has. They are or choose to be lazy in their attitude of keeping the commandments. So with that character attribute, no they will not be entitled to a covenant relationship with God. ] unto thy people, save they shall repent [ Change their character. ] of their iniquities.

23  And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; [ So it is not only for them but it will continue on even if a mixed marriage. Same thing almost as with the son of Noah who married Egyptus. ] for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.

24 And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.

25 And 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". ] said unto me: They [ The Lamanites. Just like Persia and Babylon where to the children of Israel in the old world. ] shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; [ They have a purpose in the Lords plan. Lamanites can stir the Nephites up and remind them whenever they have abandoned their covenant that they need to return to it. And the Nephites can continually send missionaries to the Lamanites to stir them up to repentance and remind them to come back to the covenant. ] and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken [ Hebrew "Shema" is translated here as hearken which means to "listen" and "obey". ] unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction.

26 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers [ Because there were no Levites in the colony of Lehi (the Nephites and Mulekites were of the tribes of Joseph and Judah,respectively), we assume that the Aaronic Priesthood was not among the Nephites, at least not until the coming of Jesus to the Americas. The titles priests and teachers (2 Nephi 5:26; Jacob1:17-18; Alma 45:22) thus appear to describe ministerial duties in the higher priesthood rather than offices in the AaronicPriesthood (Smith, Doctrines 3:87; Answers 1:123-26; Mc-Conkie, Promised Messiah 427; A New Witness 311).] over the land of my people.

27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.[ Notice that the Nephites lived after the manner of happiness - they were following God's plan of happiness which is - 2 Nephi 5:10-11, 15-17 keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments; so that the Lord was always with them, the people were industrious, and labored with their hands, and built a temple - which I assume that they used as well, they had the scriptures which they learned from (2 Nephi 4:15-16).

President Nelson said, Happiness doesn't have anything to do with the circumstances of our lives, but it has to do with our focus. And covenants are there to focus you on Jesus Christ. If you remember your sacrament prayers to always remember him and keep him as your principle focus of your life. That's why we do what we do, is to keep Jesus there. And when he is your focus, you can be happy in any circumstance. Spencer W. Kimball said, “Work brings happiness, self esteem, and prosperity. It is the means of all accomplishment; it is the opposite of idleness. We are commanded to work. (See Gen. 3:19.) Attempts to obtain our temporal, social, emotional, or spiritual well being by means of a dole violate the divine mandate that we should work for what we receive. Work should be the ruling principle in the lives of our Church membership” (See D&C 42:42; D&C 56:17; D&C 68:30–32; D&C 75:29)(“Spencer W. Kimball, “And the Lord Called His People Zion,” Ensign, Aug. 1984, 4).]

28  *And thirty years had passed away from the time we left Jerusalem. [ It's been 30 years since his father left Jerusalem, and now the Lord commands him to create the small plates and write the record of what haas happened to them. So The record that we have has not been a journal so to speak from Nephi, but rather it is all written after the fact. With this perspective Nephi knows what is important and what is not as important. By the end of this chapter, Nephi says, "It suffices me to say that 40 years had passed away," which tells us he spends at least a decade writing this thing. (vs 34) ]

29 And I, Nephi, had kept the records upon my plates, [ At this point Nephi had been keeping all of the records on the same set of plates the large plates of brass -
Later Chronology of the Large Plates of Nephi Benjamin - has both large and small plates, see above | | 52 yrs (?) see above
| Mosiah - inherits plates from father (cf. Mos. 1:16) about 124 BC | | 32 years
| Alma2 - is given plates by king Mosiah (cf. Mos. 28:20) about 92 BC | | 19 years
| Helaman2 - receives plates from father (cf. Alma 37:1-2) about 73 BC | | 23 years
| Shiblon - receives plates from brother (cf. Alma 63:1) in 56 BC | | 3 years
| Helaman3 - receives plates from uncle (cf. Alma 63:11) in 53 BC, dies in 39 BC (cf. Hela. 3:37) | | 14 years
| Nephi2 - reader never explicitly informed when he gets the plates or even that he has them until they go to his son Nephi3, we would assume he obtained them from his father Helaman3 upon his death in 39 BC (cf. Hela 3:37) | | 39 years
| Nephi3 - obtains plates 1 AD from father (cf. 3 Ne. 1:2) | | 34 yrs
| Nephi4 - obtains plates 34 AD from father, assuming 4 Ne. 1:1 division implies change in possession | | 76 yrs
| Amos - obtains plates 110 AD from father (cf. 4 Ne. 1:19) | | 84 yrs
| Amos - obtains plates 194 AD from father (cf. 4 Ne. 1:22) | | 112 yrs
| Ammaron - obtains plates 306 AD from brother (cf. 4 Ne. 1:47) | | 16 yrs
| Mormon - "obtains" plates 322 AD at age 10 from Ammaron, who's family relation is not identified (cf. Morm. 1:2) | | 63-78 yrs
| Moroni - obtains plates from father at some point between 385 AD (cf. Mormon 6:5) and 400 AD (cf. Mormon 8:6) | | 21-36 yrs
| Buried in hill Cumorah 421 AD (cf. Moroni 10:1) “The passages which I have quoted from the Book of Mormon and the more extended discussion of this subject by Elder B. H. Roberts which was published in The Deseret News of March 3 definitely established the following facts: That the hill Cumorah, and the hill Ramah are identical. That it was around this hill that the armies of both the Jaredites and Nephites fought their great last battles. That it was in this hill that Mormon deposited all of the sacred records which had been entrusted to his care by Ammaron, except the abridgment which he had made from the plates of Nephi, which were delivered into the hands of his son, Moroni. We know positively that it was in this hill that Moroni deposited the abridgment made by his father, and his own abridgment of the record of the Jaredites, and that it was from this hill that Joseph Smith obtained possession of them. Anthony Ivins Improvement Era June 1928. ] which I had made, of my people thus far.

30 And it came to pass that 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". ] said unto me: Make other plates; [the small plates, which will include the religious history.
Chronology of the Small Plates of Nephi Nephi1 - begins the small plates as religious sub-history of the large plates some time between 569-559 BC (cf. 2 Ne. 5:28-34) | | 15-25 yrs
| Jacob - obtains plates 544 BC from Nephi1 (cf. Jacob 1:1), gives plates to son Enos (cf. Jacob 7:27), no date given | | (544 BC - 420 BC) = 124, 124/2 = 62 yrs (?)
| Enos - dies 420 BC and gives plates to son Jarom (cf. Enos 1:25-26) | | 62 yrs (?) see above
| Jarom - obtains plates 420 BC and passes them to son Omni in 361 BC (cf. Jarom 1:13-15) | | 59 yrs
| Omni - obtains plates 361 BC and passes them to son Amaron in 317 BC (cf. Omni 1:3) | | 44 yrs
| Amaron - obtains plates 317 BC and passes them to brother Chemish in 279 BC (cf. Omni 1:5-8) | | 38 yrs
| Chemish - obtains plates 279 BC and passes them to son Abinadom, but no date given, next explicit date is at the retirement of king Benjamin at 124 BC | | (279 BC - 124 BC) = 155 yrs, 155 / 3 = 52 yrs(?)
| Abinadom - obtains plates and passes them to son Amaleki, but no date given | | 52 yrs (?) see above
| Amaleki - obtains plates, and turns them over to king Benjamin as he has no direct relations, no date is given | | 52 yrs (?) see above
| Benjamin - receives plates, places them together with secular plates and the small plates stop being recorded as a separate religious history, he gives up throne 124 BC (cf. Mosiah 6:4) and dies 121 BC (cf. Mosiah 6:5)] and thou shalt engraven many things upon them which are good in my sight, for the profit of thy people.

31 Wherefore, I, Nephi, to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, went and made these plates u [ So we have the other plates(the record of their history Verse 30), we now have these plates which are the small plates of Nephi(1st Nephi to Words Of Mormon. ) and later there will be those plates(will be the plates of Mormon). ] upon which I have engraven these things. [ At this point the record that is being reviewed is found on those small plates that Nephi was commanded to write. ]

32 And I engraved that which is pleasing unto God. And if my people are pleased with the things of God they will be pleased with mine engravings which are upon these plates.

33 And if my people desire to know the more particular part of the history of my people they must search mine other plates. [ The small plates now go "real time" as opposed to being a selective editing of the more inclusive large plates.]

34 And it sufficeth me to say that *forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars [The Random House Collegiate says an archaic definition of "war" is "a battle". This was most likely not some huge battle based on the number of people that were there - maybe in the hundreds.] and contentions with our brethren.