- 7In the 69th year of the judges’ rule over the Nephites, Nephi, the son of Helaman, returned from the north to Zarahemla. 2He taught God’s word and prophesied many things to the people there. 3But they rejected everything he said, so he left them and returned to his native land. 4He found the people had become awful and corrupt. There were Gaddianton robbers filling the judgment seats. They had seized control of the land. They disregarded God’s commandments. They defied Him and acted abusively to people. 5They condemned the righteous because of their righteousness. They let the guilty and wicked go unpunished because of their money. They were given control over the government to do anything they wanted, and they wanted money and adoration from the public, which allowed them to commit adultery, steal, kill, and indulge themselves. 6It had only taken a few years for this widespread iniquity to be welcomed by the Nephites. When Nephi saw it, it broke his heart. He lamented: 7I wish I could have lived during the time when my forefather Nephi first came from the land of Jerusalem; I wish I could have felt joy with him in the promised land. At that time, his people were easy to persuade, firm in keeping God’s commandments, and slow to want to commit iniquity. And they were quick to listen and obey the Lord’s words. 8Indeed, if my days could have been in those days, my soul would have rejoiced in the righteousness of my fellow Nephites. 9But I was born at this time and live at a time that fills me with sorrow because of the wickedness of my fellow Nephites.
- 10Now Nephi was on a tower in his garden, next to the highway leading to the main marketplace of the city of Zarahemla. As Nephi prayed on the garden tower next to his garden gate by the highway, 11some men were passing by and saw him lamenting to God. They ran and told the people what they had seen. And a big group of people went to learn the reason for him lamenting over the people’s wickedness.
- 12When Nephi got up, he saw a crowd had gathered. 13He asked them: Why have you come here? You want me to tell you about your iniquities? 14Is it because I’ve gotten on my tower in order to lament to God as I mourn over your terrible iniquities? 15Is it because of my mourning and lamentation you’ve come here and act surprised? Indeed, you should be surprised! You should be surprised by how you’ve surrendered to the accuser and given him complete control over your hearts. 16Why have you surrendered to the lies of someone who wants to drag your souls down to everlasting misery and endless suffering?
- 17O repent, repent! Why are you determined to die? Turn back, turn back to the Lord who is God! Do you know why He’s abandoned you? 18It’s because you’ve hardened your hearts. Indeed, you ignore the Good Shepherd’s voice. You’ve made Him angry at you. 19Therefore instead of gathering you, He’ll exterminate you and feed dogs and scavengers with your carcasses, unless you repent. 20How could you turn your back on God in the very moment He saved you? 21It’s because you want wealth, to be envied for your gold and silver. You only value wealth and worldly things of no real value, and to get it you’re willing to murder, rob, steal, and tell lies about your neighbor and do every kind of evil. 22Because of this, you’re headed for misery and calamity unless you repent. If you don’t repent, this great city and all the other great cities throughout our land will be lost, leaving you no place to live. Because the Lord won’t protect you against your enemies, as He’s done until now. 23This is what the Lord says: I won’t support the wicked with My protection for any one more than another, but I protect only those who repent of their sins and obey Me.
- So now my friends you’ll find it will be better for the Lamanites than for you unless you repent. 24They’re more righteous than you, since they haven’t sinned against the great knowledge given to you. Therefore the Lord will be merciful to them. He’ll lengthen out their days and increase their offspring, while you’ll be completely destroyed unless you repent. 25Woe to you because you welcome the great abomination founded by Gaddianton which you’ve embraced by joining that gang. 26You’re doomed to misery and calamity because you’re full of pride, which has corrupted you as a result of your great wealth. 27Woe to you because you are wicked and abominable, 28and unless you repent, you will perish; and you’ll lose all your lands, and you’ll be annihilated. 29Now I’m giving this warning not from myself, but from God. God sent me to warn you, otherwise I wouldn’t know this is your doom.
- 8When Nephi finished these words, there were judges who belonged to the secret society of Gaddianton who were angry and shouted to the people: Why don’t you arrest this man and bring him to trial, so he can be condemned for the crime he’s committed? 2Why are you looking at and listening to this man, when he’s denouncing you people and our laws? 3They said this because Nephi had spoken to them about how corrupt their laws were. Indeed, Nephi said many things that can’t be written here. But he didn’t say anything contrary to God’s commandments. 4And those judges were angry with him because he was blunt about their secret works of darkness. Nevertheless, they didn’t dare arrest him, since they were afraid the people might not support them. 5Therefore they appealed to the people: Why are you letting this man ridicule us? He’s threatening this whole nation with destruction, and he claims we’ll lose our great cities, and we won’t have any place left to live. 6Now we know this is impossible. Because we are powerful and our cities are great; therefore our enemies can’t prevail against us.
- 7So they inflamed the people until they argued over Nephi, some denounced him and some objected saying: Leave this man alone, because he’s a good man; and the things he said are certain to happen unless we repent. 8All the judgments of God he said are coming are going to come to us, since we can see he’s right about our many iniquities. He also knows everything that will happen to us because he identified our iniquities. 9Indeed, if he wasn’t a prophet, he wouldn’t have testified about these things.
- 10The people who wanted to kill Nephi were intimidated, so they didn’t arrest him. Therefore he began to prophesy again, seeing he had some support, so that the rest of them were intimidated. 11Therefore he was inspired to say to them: My friends, haven’t you read God gave power to the man Moses to divide the water of the Red Sea? And the water parted to one side and the other, so our ancestor Israelites walked through on dry ground. Then the water fell upon the Egyptian armies, swallowing them up.
- 12Now if God guided this man, then why do you argue among yourselves and refuse to accept He guided me so I know about His coming judgments upon you unless you repent? 13You not only reject my words, but you also reject all the words of our forefathers, and also the words of Moses, who clearly had great power given to him; and he testified about Christ’s coming. 14Indeed, didn’t he testify the Son of God was to come? He lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, as a sign that He who was to come would be lifted up. 15Just as all those who looked on that serpent would live, similarly, all those who look to the Son of God with faith, having a repentant spirit, will live, and even receive life which is eternal. 16Now Moses wasn’t the only one who testified of these things, but all the holy prophets from his day back to the days of Abraham did as well. 17And Abraham saw His coming and was filled with gladness and rejoiced. 18I tell you Abraham wasn’t the only one who knew of these things, there were many before Abraham’s time who were called by the Order of God, according to the Holy Order of His Son, and this was to show to the people thousands of years before His coming that redemption was available to them. 19Now I want you to know that ever since Abraham’s time there have been many prophets who have testified about this. The prophet Zenos testified boldly — and for that he was killed — 20and Zenoch, Ezaias, Isaiah, and Jeremiah as well. Jeremiah was the same prophet who testified about Jerusalem’s destruction. We’ve learned Jerusalem was destroyed according to Jeremiah’s words. So why won’t the Son of God come according to his prophecy? 21Will you argue Jerusalem wasn’t destroyed? Will you say Zedekiah’s sons weren’t killed, all except for Muloch? Indeed, can’t you see Zedekiah’s descendants are here and they were led from the land of Jerusalem? But this isn’t everything. 22Our father Lehi was forced out of Jerusalem because he testified of these things. Nephi and nearly all our forefathers down to today have all testified about it as well. They’ve testified of Christ’s coming and have looked forward rejoicing at His coming day. 23And He is God; and He is with them, and He revealed Himself to them, and He redeemed them. They worshiped Him because of what’s to happen.
- 24Now seeing as you know this and will lie if you deny it, which is your sin because you’ve rejected all these things, despite the clear evidence given to you. Indeed, you’ve been given evidence both in heaven and on earth as a witness that they’re true. 25But you’ve rejected the truth and rebelled against your holy God. Right now, instead of storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven — where nothing can destroy and where nothing unclean can enter — you’ve earned condemnation for yourselves on judgment day. 26Indeed, right now you’re ripening — because of your murders, sexual immorality, and wickedness — for everlasting destruction. Unless you repent, it’s coming soon. 27It’s at your doorstep. Go to the judgment seat and investigate what’s happened there; your judge has been murdered, and he’s lying in his blood. His brother, whose goal is to sit in the judgment seat, has murdered him. 28They both belong to your secret society, founded by Gaddianton and the Evil One, whose goal is to destroy people’s souls.
- 9Now when Nephi said this, five men who were there ran to the judgment seat. They said to each other as they were going: 2Now we’ll know for certain whether this man is a prophet and whether God has commanded him to prophesy such astonishing things to us. We don’t believe that He has; and we don’t believe he’s a prophet. However, if what he’s said about the chief judge is true, that he’s dead, then we’ll believe the other things he’s said are true. 3And they ran quickly to the judgment seat where the chief judge was on the ground lying in his blood. 4When they saw this, they were shocked, so much so they fainted, since they hadn’t believed the things Nephi had said about the chief judge. 5But when they saw this, they believed; and they feared all the judgments Nephi predicted. So they trembled with fear and fainted.
- 6Now the judge was stabbed by his brother, who then escaped using a disguise. As soon as the judge was murdered, the servants ran and told the people, yelling a murder had happened. 7And the people gathered at the judgment seat. To their astonishment, they saw the five men who had fainted. 8Now the people didn’t know anything about the crowd gathered at Nephi’s garden. Therefore they said to each other: These men are the ones who have murdered the judge; and God has struck them down to prevent their escape.
- 9So they took them, tied them up, and threw them into prison. And it was announced the judge was killed and the murderers were captured and were being held in prison. 10The next day, the people assembled to mourn and fast at the burial of the murdered highest and chief judge. 11The judges who were at Nephi’s garden and overheard him also attended the burial.
- 12And they asked the others: Where are the five who were sent to ask about the chief judge, to find out whether he was dead? And they answered: We don’t know about the five you sent, but we have five murderers now in our prison. 13Then the judges asked to see them, and they were brought out. Then they recognized the five who had been sent. The judges questioned them about the matter. And they explained: 14We ran to the judgment seat. When we saw everything just like Nephi described, we were shocked and we fainted. When we had recovered from our shock, they threw us in prison. 15Now as to this man’s murder, we don’t know who did it. We only know this much: we ran and came just as you asked, and he was dead just as Nephi had said.
- 16Now the judges described the matter in detail to the people and accused Nephi, saying: We know Nephi must have conspired with someone to kill the judge; then he would be able to tell it to us, so he could convert us to his faith, so he could raise himself to be a great man, chosen by God and a prophet. 17Now we’ll expose this man, and get his confession and reveal the judge’s true murderer. 18The five were set free on the day of the burial. However, they rebuked the judges for speaking against Nephi, confronting them one after another, countering their arguments and proving them wrong.
- 19Nevertheless, they had Nephi arrested, tied up, and brought before the crowd who had gathered. And they began to question him in various ways trying to get him to contradict himself, so they could condemn him to death, 20asking him: You’re part of a conspiracy, an accomplice! Who’s your associate that committed this murder? Tell us and admit your guilt! And they also offered: Here’s some money! We’ll let you live if you tell us and admit you’ve made an agreement with someone. 21But Nephi responded: You fools, you unconverted in heart, you blind and stubborn people, do you have any idea how long the Lord your God will let you continue in your sinful ways? 22You ought to begin weeping and wailing over the destruction now coming for you, unless you repent. 23You say I conspired with a man to murder Seezoram, our chief judge. But I told you because I wanted you to know it had happened. You need to realize I know of all your wickedness and abominations. 24Because I’ve exposed your wickedness, you accuse me of conspiring with a man to commit this murder. Because I showed you this sign, you’re angry and want to have me killed.
- 25Now I’ll show you another sign, and we’ll see if you want to kill me for this one as well. 26I tell you: Go to the house of Seantum, who is Seezoram’s brother, and ask him: 27Has Nephi, the so-called prophet, who prophesies so much evil about us, conspired with you, and as part of this conspiracy have you murdered your brother Seezoram? 28And he’ll tell you: No. 29Then ask him: Did you murder your brother? 30And he’ll stand there afraid, not knowing what to say. And he’ll deny he did it; and he’ll pretend to be surprised. Nevertheless, he’ll tell you he’s innocent. 31But when you examine him, you’ll find blood on the bottom part of his cloak. 32When you see this, you should ask: Where does this blood come from? Isn’t this your brother’s blood? 33And then he’ll shake with fear and his face will lose its color and look as pale as death. 34Then you should say: Because of how afraid and pale you look, we know you’re guilty. 35Then he’ll be even more afraid; and he’ll confess and no longer deny he committed this murder. 36And then he’ll tell you that I, Nephi couldn’t know anything about it unless it was revealed to me by God’s power. Then you’ll know I’m honest and I’m sent to you from God.
- 37And they went and did just as Nephi had said to them. The things he predicted were true; because just as he described, Seantum denied, and then like he predicted, he confessed. 38He was exposed as the actual murderer, so the five were vindicated, and Nephi proven innocent. 39Some of the Nephites believed in Nephi’s words. Others believed because of the testimony of the five, who had been converted while they were in prison. 40Some of the people said Nephi was a prophet. 41And others said: He’s a god; because if he wasn’t a god, he couldn’t know about everything. Indeed, he’s told us the thoughts of our hearts, and he’s foretold things to us as well, and he’s even identified the murderer of our chief judge.
- 10This resulted in an argument among the people, so they split up, going away and leaving Nephi standing alone. 2Nephi went to return to his own house, pondering about what the Lord had shown him. 3As he was pondering this, regretting the Nephites’ wickedness, their secret works of darkness, murders, robberies, and all their iniquities; reviewing these in his heart, a voice spoke to him, saying: 4You are blessed, Nephi, because of the things you’ve done. I’ve seen how you’ve tirelessly declared the word I gave you to this people. You haven’t been afraid of them and haven’t tried to save your own life, but have tried to learn My will and to keep My commandments. 5Now because you’ve done this so tirelessly, I’ll bless you forever. And I’ll make you powerful in word and deed, in faith and works, so that all things will happen to you as you ask, since you won’t ask anything contrary to My will. 6You are Nephi and I Am God. I declare this to you in front of My angels as witnesses: You are given power over this people and will strike the earth with famine, disease, and destruction in response to this people’s wickedness. 7Indeed, I give you power that whatever you seal on earth will be sealed in heaven, and whatever you set loose on earth will be set loose in heaven, and so you will hold this power over this people. 8And so if you say to this temple: Split in two! — it will happen. 9And if you say to this mountain: Fall down and be leveled! — it will happen. 10And if you say for God to afflict this people, it will happen. 11Now I command you to go and warn these people that the Lord God, the All-Powerful One, decrees: Unless you repent, you will be afflicted and destroyed.
- 12Now when the Lord said this to Nephi, he stopped, turned around, and didn’t go to his house, but warned the many people spread across the land about the Lord’s words promising to destroy them if they didn’t repent. 13Now despite the great miracle of Nephi telling them about the murder of the chief judge, they hardened their hearts and refused to pay any attention to the Lord’s words. 14But Nephi declared to them the Lord’s word, saying: Unless you repent, the Lord says you will be afflicted and destroyed. 15When Nephi delivered this message, they still hardened their hearts and ignored what he said. The people mocked him and attempted to seize him so they could throw him in prison. 16But God’s power was with him, and they were unable to grab him and put him in prison because he was taken by the Spirit and carried away from them.
- 17And so he went forth in the Spirit from gathering to gathering declaring God’s word, until all of them heard it directly or indirectly. 18But they refused to respond to his warning. But there began to be heated arguments, so much so that they fought among themselves and began to kill each other with the sword. 19And so ended the 71st year of the judges’ rule over the Nephites.
Chapter 3
THE PROPHECY OF NEPHI, THE SON OF HELAMAN
God warns the Nephites that He will punish them in His anger to their complete destruction unless they repent of their wickedness. God punishes the Nephites; they repent and turn to Him. Samuel, a Lamanite, prophesies to the Nephites.