Nephi is Told to Kill Laban

I replied to my brothers, “Let’s go back to Jerusalem and be faithful in keeping the Lord’s commandments. Since He is mightier than all the earth, surely He is mightier than Laban’s fifty, or even his fifty thousand! Let’s go and be strong like Moses, for when he spoke the Red Sea parted, and our forefathers walked out of captivity on dry ground. Then Pharaoh’s armies followed and were drowned in the Red Sea. You know this is true, and you know an angel has just spoken to you, so how can you doubt? Let’s go, for the Lord will deliver us just as He delivered our forefathers. He’ll destroy Laban just as He destroyed Pharaoh’s armies.” After Laman and Lemuel heard this, they were still angry and afraid, but they followed me back to the walls of Jerusalem.

By now it was dark. I told my brothers to wait for me, to hide outside the walls. Then I crept into the city and carefully made my way back to Laban’s house. I was being led by the Spirit, not knowing what I was going to do, but I went ahead anyway. As I came near Laban’s house, I saw a drunken man stagger and fall down. I crept closer and discovered that it was Laban! I drew his sword from its sheath. The handle was made of pure gold, the workmanship very fine, and the blade was made from the finest steel.

All at once the Spirit told me, “Kill Laban.” I replied in my heart, “I have never killed anyone, and I do not want to kill this man.”

The Spirit replied, “The Lord has delivered him into your hands as He said He would.” I knew Laban had not listened to the Lord’s commandments. My brothers and I had asked Laban for the records, and he had refused to give them up. Rather than yield to the Lord, Laban had become proud and greedy, and he had taken our wealth after commanding his servants to kill us.

A third time the Spirit spoke, “Kill him, for the Lord has delivered him into your hands. The Lord destroys the wicked to bring about His righteous purposes. It is better for one man to die than for a whole nation to falter and pass away in unbelief.”

When I heard this, I remembered the Lord telling me in the wilderness, “If your descendants keep my commandments, they will be protected and allowed to prosper in the choice land I have prepared for them.” I knew my descendants could not keep the Lord’s commandments found in the law of Moses unless they had a record of the law, which was engraved on the brass plates. And finally, I knew the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for one reason only—to help me obey His command to obtain the records and bring them to my father in the wilderness. Knowing all these things, I obeyed the Spirit’s voice. I took Laban by the hair and swiftly cut off his head with his own sword. Then I put on Laban’s clothes and armor, disguising myself as him.

I went to Laban’s treasury, where I met his servant who had the treasury keys. Imitating Laban’s voice, I told the servant to follow me into the treasury. Because I was wearing Laban’s clothes, and because it was dark, the servant thought I was Laban and followed me. The servant asked about the Elders—the Jewish leaders—knowing that Laban had been out meeting with them earlier that evening. I answered him in a way I thought Laban would have. I told the servant I would be taking the brass plates to my elder brethren, who were just outside the city walls, and to follow me there. The servant thought I was talking about the Elder brethren of the church, and he spoke of the Jewish elders many times as he followed me out of the city.

When my brothers saw me coming, they were very frightened and began to run away, thinking I was Laban—that he had killed me and was now coming to kill them. When I called to them in my own voice, they knew it was I and stopped running. Then Laban’s servant became afraid and was about to run back to the city. Being large for my age, and with the strength given to me by the Lord, I held onto the servant to keep him from escaping. I said to him, “If you will listen to what the Lord told me, as He lives, you will live.” I made an oath with him so that he would not be afraid. The oath was that he would no longer be a servant if he would go with us into the wilderness. I said, “The Lord has commanded us to get the plates, and we should be diligent in keeping His commandments. If you will come with us into the wilderness, you will be an equal among us.”

This servant, named Zoram, took courage at my words and made an oath to go and stay with us from that time forward. We wanted him to come with us so the Jews would not find out about us, for they would have come after and killed us. After Zoram had made this oath, we were no longer worried about his loyalty to us. Then we all returned to my father’s tent in the wilderness with the brass plates.