First Nephi — Chapter 5
1 When we got back to our father’s tent, he was very happy; and so was my mother Sariah. She had been very sad because of us.
2 She thought we had died in the desert. She told my father that he was just a dreamer, saying: “You have taken us away from our house and lands, and our sons are dead, and we are dying in the desert.”
3 This was the way she complained to my father.
4 My father told her: “I know God has shown me things in visions. If I had not seen those visions, I would not have known how good God is, and we would have stayed in Jerusalem to be destroyed with our people.
5 “But God has given to me a promised land, and that gives me great joy. I know the Lord will save my sons from Laban and bring them back to us here in the desert.”
6 This was how my father comforted my mother Sariah and helped her not to worry about us while we were on our way to and from Jerusalem.
7 So when we got back to my father’s tent, they were very happy, and my mother was comforted.
8 She said: “Now I know that God told my husband to escape into the desert, and I know the Lord protected my sons from Laban and helped them do what he commanded them to do.”
9 They were so happy that they made a sacrifice to God and thanked him.
10 After they thanked God, my father read all the things that were written on the brass plates.
11 He saw that the brass plates had the five books of Moses written on them. They told about how the world was made and about Adam and Eve, our first parents.
12 The plates also told about the history of the Jews from the beginning, down to King Zedekiah.
13 All the prophecies of the prophets from the beginning up to the time of King Zedekiah were written on them, including what the prophet Jeremiah had said.
14 Lehi also found a genealogy of his ancestors on the brass plates and found out he belonged to the family of Joseph. (The same Joseph, Jacob’s son, who had been sold as a slave to the Egyptians, and whom God had saved to keep all of Jacob’s family from dying of hunger.
15 That same God who had saved them also helped them escape from slavery in Egypt.)
16 This was how Lehi found out about his genealogy. Laban was also part of Joseph’s family, so he and his ancestors had kept the brass plates.
17 When my father saw all these things, he began to prophesy about his own descendants.
18 He said the brass plates would be given to people all over the world who would belong to his family.
19 He said the brass plates would never be destroyed. He prophesied many things about his descendants.
20 So far, my father and I had done everything the Lord had commanded us to do.
21 We had gotten the brass plates as God had commanded. We read them and found that they were very important for us to have so our children could learn about God’s commandments.
22 God had a wise reason for us to carry them with us into the desert as we traveled to the promised land.
easyreadbkmormon.com 