Lehi's Family Leaves Jerusalem

The Lord said to my father in a dream, “I bless you because you faithfully told the people the things I commanded you to tell them. However, because of this, they are planning to kill you. To escape them, take your family and go into the wilderness.” Lehi obeyed the Lord and left his home, his lands, gold, silver, and treasures, and he took only his family, tents and supplies and went into the wilderness.

Our family consisted of my father, Lehi; my mother, Sariah; my older brothers, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam; and me, Nephi. We traveled south into the wilderness, down the shoreline of the Red Sea. After traveling for three days, we pitched our tents in a valley near a river. Here my father built an altar of stones, made an offering, and gave thanks to the Lord.

The valley where we camped was at the mouth of the river that flowed into the Red Sea. My father named the river after Laman and said to him, “I pray you will be like this river, always flowing into the fountain of all righteousness!” Then my father told Lemuel, “I pray you will be like this valley, firm, steadfast, and immovable in keeping the Lord’s commandments!”

My father said these things because Laman and Lemuel were both very stubborn. They kept complaining, saying my father was a foolish, visionary man, and that he had taken them away from all their comforts and wealth to die in the wilderness. They complained because they knew nothing about how God deals with His children. Like the Jews, they thought the great city of Jerusalem could not be destroyed.

However, Lehi, being filled with the Spirit, spoke to them with the Lord’s power. This caused them to fear His judgments—so much that they began to tremble, and for a time they stopped complaining.

Lehi and his family camped in the valley that he had named Lemuel. Although very young, I had great desires to know God’s will. So as I prayed with faith, the Lord gave me understanding, and I did not rebel against my father. I told my older brother Sam what the Lord had told me by His Holy Spirit, and Sam believed me. But Laman and Lemuel did not believe me, and in my sorrow over their stubbornness I prayed for them. The Lord answered my prayer, saying, “You are blessed, Nephi, because of your faith and humility before me. I have prepared the best land on earth for you, and if you will obey my commands, I will lead you there. If your older brothers keep rebelling against you, they will be cut off from my presence, and I will not be with them. If you obey my commands, you will become their ruler and teacher. And if Laman and Lemuel rebel against me, I will curse them and their descendants, and they will not have power over yours. But if your descendants also rebel against me, they will not have my protection, and your brothers’ descendants will be a trial for yours, reminding them to look to me in righteousness for protection.”