- 1After fifty-five years had ended since Lehi left Jerusalem, Nephi gave me, Jacob, a commandment regarding the small plates on which these writings are engraved. 2He commanded me to only write a few things on these plates that I considered to be extremely valuable, and to only touch lightly on the history of this people, who are called Nephites. 3He said his people’s history was to be engraved on his other plates and I was to keep these plates safe and hand them down to my descendants from generation to generation. 4If there was sacred preaching or any great revelation or prophecy, I was to engrave their main points on these plates and write about them as much as possible, on behalf of Christ to benefit our people. 5The things to happen to our people were accurately shown to us as a result of faith and our great concern. 6We also had many revelations and the spirit of great prophecy; so we knew about Christ, who was appointed to come, and His kingdom. 7Therefore we worked diligently among our people to persuade them to come to Christ and share in God’s goodness, so they could enter His rest. Then there wouldn’t be any reason for Him to declare in His wrath that they would not enter His rest, as He had been provoked during the days testing the children of Israel in the wilderness. 8Therefore we pray to God we could persuade all mankind not to rebel against God, not to provoke Him to be angry; rather, we pray that all people would believe in Christ, contemplate His death, endure your cross along with Him, and patiently go through the persecution and dishonor that come from the world. And so I Jacob intend to fulfill my brother Nephi’s commandment.
- 9Then Nephi grew old, and he sensed he would soon die. So he anointed a man to be a king and ruler over his people. Now according to the rule of the kings — 10the people loved Nephi tremendously since he had been a great protector for them and had wielded Laban’s sword in their defense and had worked his whole life for their well-being — 11as a result, the people wanted to memorialize his name, calling those who ruled as his successors Second Nephi, Third Nephi, etc., according to the rule of the kings. So this is the title the people called them, whatever their name happened to be.
- 12Then Nephi died. 13Now the people who weren’t Lamanites were Nephites; however, there were also those called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. 14But I won’t distinguish them by these names after this; instead, I’ll call those who attempt to kill the Nephites Lamanites, and those who are friendly to Nephi I’ll call Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the rule of the kings.
- 15Now the Nephites under the second king’s rule began to grow hard in their hearts and indulge in wicked practices to a certain degree, like David of old and his son Solomon did, wanting to have many wives and concubines. 16They also began to spend their time searching for gold and silver and began to be filled with pride. 17Therefore I Jacob addressed the following words to them as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained from the Lord the message I was to give them, 18since my brother Joseph and I had been ordained as priests and teachers of this people by Nephi. 19We honored our callings for the glory of the Lord, taking upon ourselves the responsibility, viewing the people’s sins as our responsibility if we didn’t diligently teach them God’s word. That being the case, by laboring with our strength their blood wouldn’t stain our clothes, otherwise their blood would stain our clothes and we wouldn’t be found spotless on the last day.
The Book of Jacob
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI
The words of his preaching to his people. He silences a man who attempts to overthrow Christ’s doctrine. A few words about Nephite history:
Chapter 1