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First Nephi — Chapter 18

¹ Then they worshiped the Lord and went to work with me. We made the wood into strange shapes. The Lord showed me from time to time how to work the wood.

² Now I, Nephi, did not work the wood the way people did, nor did I build the ship the way people did. I built it the way the Lord showed me, which is not the way people build ships.

³ I, Nephi, went into the mountain and prayed to the Lord a lot, and he showed me great things.

⁴ After I was done building the ship the way the Lord taught me, my brothers saw it was good, and very well made, so they were humble again before the Lord.

⁵ Then the voice of the Lord came to my father and told him that we should get into the ship.

⁶ So the next day, after we had gotten everything ready — fruit and meat from the desert, and lots of honey, and the supplies the Lord had commanded us to take, we loaded the ship with all our things, and our seeds, and with everything we had brought with us, depending on our age. Then we all went into the ship with our wives and children.

⁷ My father and mother had had two more sons in the desert. The older one was called Jacob, and the younger one was called Joseph.

⁸ After we had taken all our supplies and things with us into the ship, we set sail for the promised land.

⁹ After we had sailed for many days, my brothers and Ishmael’s sons and their wives began to get too happy. They danced and sang and said rude things, and they forgot what power had taken them this far.

¹⁰ I, Nephi, was afraid the Lord would be angry with us and punish us for our sins, and that we would drown in the sea. I began to talk to them very seriously, but they got angry with me and said: “We will not let our younger brother be a ruler over us.”

¹¹ Then Laman and Lemuel grabbed me and tied me up with cords, and treated me very badly. The Lord let them do it so he could show his power and keep his promise about what would happen to the wicked.

¹² After they tied me up so I could not move, the compass the Lord had given to us did not work anymore.

¹³ They did not know which way to steer the ship. A great and terrible storm began, and our ship was blown back for three days. They began to be afraid that they would drown in the sea, but they still did not untie me.

¹⁴ On the fourth day, the storm got even worse.

¹⁵ We were just about to sink into the sea. After the storm had blown our ship back for four days, my brothers saw that God was punishing them, and that they would die if they did not repent of their sins, so they came and untied me. My wrists and ankles were very swollen and hurt very much.

¹⁶ Even so, I trusted in God and praised him all day long, and did not complain against the Lord because of the bad things that had happened to me.

¹⁷ My father, Lehi, had said many things to them and to Ishmael’s sons, but they said they would hurt anyone who said anything to try to help me. My parents got very sick because they were old and very sad about my brothers’ wickedness.

¹⁸ They got so sick they almost died, because of their sadness about my brothers’ wickedness, and they would have been buried at sea.

¹⁹ Jacob and Joseph, who were young and needed food from their mother, were sad and suffered because of her sickness. But their sadness and suffering, and the tears and prayers of my wife and children, did not soften my brothers’ hearts so they would let me go.

²⁰ Only God’s power to destroy them softened their hearts. When they saw they were going to sink in the sea, they repented of what they had done and let me go.

²¹ After they let me go, I took the compass, and it worked for me. I prayed to the Lord, and after I prayed, the winds and storm stopped, and there was great peace.

²² Then I, Nephi, sailed the ship towards the promised land again.

²³ After we sailed for many days, we came to the promised land. We went to live on the land and set up our tents, and we called it the promised land.

²⁴ Then we began to farm and plant seeds. We put all the seeds we had brought from Jerusalem into the ground, and they grew very well, so we were very blessed.

²⁵ As we traveled in the promised land we found animals of every kind in the forests — cows, oxen, donkeys, horses, and goats, and all kinds of wild animals we could use. We also found all kinds of metal — gold and silver and copper.