1 Nephi
The First Book of Nephi — His Reign and Ministry
Lehi's family leaves Jerusalem
Preface · from the original edition
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 people concerning their iniquity and they seek to destroy 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.
Chapters
- 1Lehi prays for Jerusalem, sees a pillar of fire and a vision of God on his throne, then warns the city — and the Jews try to kill him.
- 2Warned in a dream, Lehi leaves Jerusalem for the wilderness. Laman and Lemuel complain the whole way; Nephi asks God and comes to believe.
- 3Lehi sends his sons back for Laban's brass plates. Laban throws them out and seizes their gold, and an angel stops the beating that follows.
- 4Nephi slips into the city at night, finds Laban drunk, and kills him at the Spirit's command to get the brass plates. Zoram joins the family.
- 5Sariah has given her sons up for dead when they return. Lehi searches the brass plates and finds Moses, the prophets, and his own line to Joseph.
- 6Nephi explains why he leaves the genealogy out of these plates: he wants the room for the things of God, not for what would please the world.
- 7Sent back for Ishmael's family, Nephi is tied up in the wilderness by his own brothers. He prays, the cords come loose, and he forgives them.
- 8Lehi's dream of the tree with white fruit, the iron rod, the dark mist, the filthy river, and the great and spacious building full of mockers.
- 9Nephi explains his two sets of plates — one for the ministry, one for kings and wars — and says he makes them for a purpose God has not told him.
- 10Lehi prophesies of a Messiah six hundred years out, of the prophet who baptizes him, and of Israel scattered and gathered like an olive tree.
- 11Nephi asks to see his father's vision. On a high mountain he is shown the virgin of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, and what the tree means: God's love.
- 12Nephi sees his descendants' future — wars, a darkness and a great earthquake, the Lamb descending to them, four generations of peace, then ruin.
- 13Nephi sees Gentiles cross the sea, a great and abominable church strip plain and precious things from the book, and other records restore them.
- 14The angel shows Nephi that there are only two churches, and names John as the apostle appointed to write the end of the world in Nephi's place.
- 15Back at the tent, Nephi explains the olive tree, the iron rod, and the filthy river to his brothers, and what the tree of life stands for.
- 16A brass ball appears at Lehi's tent door to guide them. Nephi breaks his bow, makes another out of wood, and Ishmael dies and is buried at Nahom.
- 17At Bountiful the Lord tells Nephi to build a ship. His brothers mock him until he recounts Moses and the Red Sea, and the Lord shakes them.
- 18Nephi builds the ship the Lord's way, not the way people build ships. Mid-ocean his brothers tie him up, the compass stops, and a storm nearly sinks them.
- 19Nephi tells why he keeps two records, quotes Zenos on the God of Israel, and reads Isaiah aloud so his brothers can liken it to themselves.
- 20Isaiah 48 in modern English: the Lord declared things before they happened, refined Israel in the furnace of affliction, and calls them out of Babylon.
- 21Isaiah 49 in modern English: the servant given as a light to the Gentiles, and God's promise to forget Zion no sooner than a mother forgets her child.
- 22Nephi explains Isaiah to his brothers — Israel scattered and gathered, a marvelous work among the Gentiles, and Satan bound by a righteous people.