- 1After I Nephi finished teaching my brothers, our father Lehi also said many things to them, recounting to them how the Lord had done great things for them through leaving the land of Jerusalem. 2He talked to them about their rebellion during the sea voyage and God’s mercy in sparing their lives, so that they weren’t lying at the bottom of the sea. 3He also spoke to them about the promised land they had been given: how merciful the Lord had been in warning us to flee from the land of Jerusalem. 4He said: I’ve seen a vision showing me Jerusalem has been destroyed. If we had remained there, we also would have died. 5But, he said, despite our hardships, we’ve been given a promised land, a land specially chosen over all other lands, a land the Lord God has covenanted with me that my descendants will inherit. Indeed, the Lord has consecrated this land for my children and me forever, and also for those who will likewise be led out of other countries by the Lord’s power. 6Therefore I prophesy under the influence of God’s Spirit over me, that no one will come to this land unless they’re brought by the Lord’s power. 7So this land is consecrated to those He’ll bring here. And if they serve Him according to the commandments He has given, it will always be a land of liberty for them; therefore they’ll never be brought down into captivity — but if they are, it will be because of iniquity; because if iniquity abounds, the land will become cursed because of their failure to serve Him. It will always be blessed for the righteous. 8It’s a wise thing for this land to still be kept from other nations knowing about it. Otherwise, many nations would overrun this land, so there wouldn’t be any place for an inheritance.
- 9As a result, I’ve obtained a promise that to the degree they keep His commandments — including anyone the Lord God brings from the land of Jerusalem — they’ll prosper in this land. And they’ll be hidden from all other nations, so they can have this land to themselves. And if they keep His commandments, they’ll be blessed upon this land. No one will interfere or take away the land they receive as an inheritance; they’ll live here safely forever. 10But when they fall away in unbelief, after having received such great blessings from the Lord, having knowledge about the earth’s creation and mankind’s history, knowing the great and awe-inspiring things the Lord has done since the world was created, having power given to them to live by faith, having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by His infinite goodness into this precious land of promise — I say if the time comes that they choose to reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, the judgments of Him who is righteous will fall upon them. 11He’ll bring other nations to them, He’ll give to these others power and He’ll take their lands away from them. He will scatter and strike them down. 12Indeed, as one generation passes to another, there will be slaughter and God’s punishment as a reminder for them.
- Therefore, my sons, I want you to remember; I want you to listen to me carefully. 13I wish you would wake up, wake up from your deep sleep — the sleep of hell — and shake off the awful chains that restrain you, the spiritual chains that overtake people to enslave them, leading down to the endless abyss of misery and anguish. 14Wake up, get up from the dust, and hear a trembling parent’s words, whose body you’ll soon bury in the cold, silent grave, from where no traveler returns. A few days from now I will die, leaving my life here like everything does on this earth. 15But the Lord has redeemed my soul from hell. I’ve seen His glory, and I’m continually welcomed in the arms of His love. 16I want you to remember to keep the Lord’s statutes and judgments. This has been a deep concern of mine from the beginning. 17My heart has been weighed down with sorrow from time to time, as I’ve been afraid that — because of the hardness of your hearts — the Lord who is God will have no choice but to punish you in His justified wrath, and cut you off and destroy you forever. 18Then a cursing would follow your descendants for many generations, killing them by sword and famines because of anger and hatred that enslaves through iniquity because they rebel against God and follow the accuser. 19My sons, may these things not come upon you! Instead, may you be a chosen and blessed people of the Lord.
- May you do His will, because His ways are righteousness forever. 20He has said: To the degree you keep My commandments, you’ll prosper in the land. But to the degree you don’t keep My commandments, you’ll be shut out from My presence. 21And now, so that I can have joy in you, so my heart can gladly leave this world thinking of you, and so I don’t die filled with grief and sorrow — get up from the dust, my sons, and be men, determined in one mind and one heart, united in all things, so you don’t fall into captivity 22and aren’t afflicted with a severe cursing and don’t provoke a righteous God’s judgment upon you to the eternal destruction of both spirit and body. 23Wake up, my sons, clothe yourselves with righteousness, shake off the chains that bind you, come out of the darkness, and get up from the dust. 24Don’t rebel anymore against your brother, whose understanding and teaching have been glorious, who’s kept God’s commandments since we left Jerusalem, and who’s been an instrument in God’s hands in bringing us to the promised land. Had it not been for him, we would certainly have died of hunger in the wilderness. Nevertheless, you tried to kill him, and you’ve constantly hurt and fought him. 25I’m very afraid and worried about you, expecting you’ll make him suffer again. You’ve accused him of trying to get power and authority over you. But I know he hasn’t tried to get power and authority over you; on the contrary, he has sought God’s glory and your own eternal happiness. 26But you’ve complained because he’s been forthright with you. You say he has reprimanded you harshly and been angry with you. But his powerful rebuke came from God’s word within him. And what you call anger was the truth of God, which he didn’t hold back, honestly declaring your iniquities. 27God’s power was clearly with him, to such an extent that when he commanded you then you obeyed. That wasn’t just him, but it was the Spirit of the Lord in him that led him to speak, so he couldn’t remain silent.
- 28Now, my sons Laman, Lemuel, and Sam, as well as my sons who are Ishmael’s sons, if you’ll listen to Nephi teach, you won’t be lost. If you’re willing to listen to him, I leave you a blessing, namely my first blessing. 29But if you refuse to listen to him, I’ll take away my first blessing — even my entire blessing — and it will rest upon him. 30Now Zoram, I speak to you: You are Laban’s servant; nevertheless, you’ve been brought out of the land of Jerusalem. I know you are a true friend to my son Nephi forever. 31Because you’ve been faithful, your descendants will be blessed with his descendants — they’ll live long upon this land in prosperity. And nothing but their own iniquity will harm or disturb their prosperity on this land forever. 32Therefore if you keep the Lord’s commandments, the Lord has consecrated this land for the security of your descendants with my son’s descendants.
- 2Now Jacob, I speak to you: You are my first born during the times of my trouble and difficulties in the wilderness. In your childhood you’ve experienced hardships and a great deal of distress because of your brothers’ harsh and violent behavior. 2Nevertheless, my first born in the wilderness, you are familiar with the greatness of God. He’ll consecrate your difficulties ultimately to benefit you. 3Therefore your soul will be blessed, and you’ll live safely with your brother Nephi, and your life will be spent serving God. Therefore I know you are redeemed because of the righteousness of your Redeemer, for you’ve seen that He’ll come at the appointed time to bring salvation to mankind. 4You’ve seen His glory in your youth, so you are blessed just like those He’ll minister to personally on earth. Because the Spirit is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the way is prepared since the Fall of mankind, and salvation is free. 5People are instructed well enough to understand good from evil — the law is given to mankind. However, no one on earth is justified by the law — that is, mankind are cut off by the law, indeed, they were cut off by the earthly, temporal law. Likewise, they’re shut out from good things by the spiritual law and become miserable forever. 6This is because redemption comes in and through the Holy Messiah, because He is full of grace and truth. 7He offers Himself as a sacrifice for sin, to fulfill the requirements of the law for all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Therefore the requirements of the law cannot be met for anyone else. 8That being the case, how extremely important it is to declare these things to the inhabitants of the earth, so they can know that no flesh can live in God’s presence except through the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who lays down His mortal life, and takes it back by the power of the Spirit, so He can accomplish the resurrection of the dead, being the first who will rise from the grave. 9He is the essential required sacrificial offering to God, since He’ll intercede on behalf of all mankind; and those who believe in Him will be saved. 10Because of the intercession for everyone, all mankind will be brought to God. They’ll stand in His presence to be judged by Him according to the truth and holiness in Him.
- The Holy One has established the requirements of the law that impose a fixed punishment opposite to the available happiness. Happiness is the purpose of the atonement. 11But there must be a balance or opposition for all things. If there were no balance, my first born in the wilderness, righteousness and wickedness couldn’t exist, or happiness and misery, or good and bad. The result would be no contrast but only an unvarying sameness. That being the case, if everything were fixed into the same condition, there would be no difference between life or death, decay or growth, happiness or misery, awareness or unconsciousness. 12Therefore everything would have been created for nothing — there would have been no purpose resulting from its creation. This failure to have opposites would destroy the wisdom of God and His eternal purposes, and also make the power, mercy, and justice of God mean nothing. 13If you eliminate law, you must also eliminate sin. And if you eliminate sin, you must also eliminate righteousness. Then if there’s no righteousness, there’s no happiness. And if there’s no righteousness or happiness, there’s no punishment or misery. And if all these plans of God are destroyed, you must also destroy God. If you destroy God, then we wouldn’t exist, and neither would the earth, since there couldn’t have been a creation of things, either to act or be acted upon; therefore all things would have necessarily ceased to exist.
- 14Now, my sons, I tell you these things to help and instruct you. Because there is a God and He has created all things: the heavens, the earth, and everything that’s in them, both things to act and things to be acted upon. 15And to bring about His eternal plans in His purpose for mankind — after He had created our first parents and the animals of the field and the birds of the air and, in short, all created things — there had to be a contrast: the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life, the one sweet and the other bitter. 16Therefore the Lord God gave mankind the ability to choose; but people couldn’t choose unless they were presented with a decision to make.
- 17And based on what I’ve read, I must conclude an angel of God, according to what’s written, fell from heaven. And he became the accuser, having pursued what was evil before God. 18And because he fell from heaven and became miserable forever, he wants mankind to be miserable too. Indeed, that old serpent — who is the accuser, who is the father of all lies — said to Eve: Eat some of the forbidden fruit, and you won’t die, but you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. 19After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden to cultivate the earth. 20Then, they had children, which is the family of the whole earth. 21And mankind’s lifespan was lengthened, according to God’s will, so they could repent while living on earth. Therefore their condition became a probation, and their lives were lengthened to provide them time to keep the commandments the Lord God gave mankind. He commanded that everyone must repent, letting everyone know they were lost because of their parents’ transgression.
- 22Now if Adam hadn’t transgressed, he wouldn’t have fallen, but he would have stayed in the Garden of Eden. And all things that were created must have remained in exactly the same state as when first created. They would have continued forever and had no end, 23and they wouldn’t have had children. Therefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, because they knew no misery, doing no good, because they weren’t exposed to sin. 24But all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knows all things. 25Adam fell for people to exist, and we exist to experience joy. 26And the Messiah comes at the appointed time to rescue mankind from the Fall. Then because they’re rescued from the Fall, they’re free to act, knowing good from evil, to act for themselves and not to be acted on. However, mankind will be punished based on the law on the great and last day, according to the commandments God has given. 27So people act freely in this life, and this creation lets people choose freely. They’re free to choose liberty and eternal life by obeying mankind’s Mediator, or instead choose captivity and death by letting the accuser lead them. The accuser wants all mankind to become miserable like he is.
- 28Now, my sons, I want you to look to the great Mediator and follow His great commandments and be faithful to His words and choose eternal life according to the will of His Holy Spirit, 29and not choose eternal death according to the will of our fallen and vulnerable bodies, with their weaknesses and appetites, which allows the accuser to tempt and mislead you to fall into hell, so he can rule over you in his own kingdom. 30I’ve spoken these few words to all of you, my sons, in the final days of my life. I’ve chosen to follow those good principles taught in the prophets’ words. I have no other objective than your souls’ everlasting happiness. Amen.
The Second Book of Nephi
An account of Lehi’s death. Nephi’s brothers rebel against him. The Lord warns Nephi to go away into the wilderness. His travels in the wilderness, and so forth.
Chapter 1