First Nephi — Chapter 2
1 The Lord spoke to my father in a dream and said to him: “You are blessed, Lehi, because of the things you have done. The people want to kill you for telling them the things I commanded you.”
2 Then the Lord commanded my father in his dream to take his family and go into the desert.
3 Lehi did what the Lord told him to do.
4 He went into the desert. He left his house, his land, his gold, his silver, and his riches, and took only his family, and supplies, and tents into the desert.
5 He came down near the Red Sea, traveling close to it in the desert, with his family–my mother Sariah, [my sisters], and my older brothers Laman, Lemuel, and Sam.
6 After traveling in the desert for three days, he set up his tent in a valley near the mouth of a river.
7 He built an altar out of stones and made a sacrifice to the Lord, and thanked him.
8 Lehi called the river Laman. It ran into the Red Sea.
9 When my father saw that the river ran into the Red Sea, he told Laman: “O, I wish you would be like this river, always running to the sea of all righteousness!”
10 He told Lemuel: “O, I wish you would be like this valley, never moving, always keeping the Lord’s commandments!”
11 He said this to Laman and Lemuel because they were stubborn. They complained about their father. They said he had taken them away from Jerusalem and left behind their gold and silver and riches, and that they would die in the desert because their father said he saw visions.
12 Laman and Lemuel, the two oldest sons, complained about their father because they did not know about the God who had made them.
13 They did not believe Jerusalem would be destroyed as the prophets said. They were just like the Jews at Jerusalem who wanted to kill my father.
14 But my father talked to them in the valley of Lemuel while he was filled with the Spirit, which made Laman and Lemuel shake. So they stopped arguing with him and did what he told them to do.
15 My father lived in a tent.
16 I, Nephi, was very young, but I was big for my age. I wanted very much to know the ways of God, so I prayed to the Lord. He came to me, and helped me believe everything my father said, so I did not complain about my father nor rebel against him like my brothers.
17 I told Sam what the Lord told me through his Holy Spirit, and he believed what I said.
18 But Laman and Lemuel would not listen to what I said. I was so sad that they had such hard hearts that I prayed to the Lord for them.
19 And the Lord said to me: “You are blessed, Nephi, because of your faith, and because you have tried to learn about me with a humble heart.
20 “If you keep my commandments, you will do well, and I will lead you to a promised land I have made for you. This land is more wonderful than any other land in the world.
21 “If your brothers rebel against me, they will be cut off from the Lord.
22 “If you keep my commandments, you will be a ruler and teacher over your brothers.
23 “If they rebel against me, I will curse them. They will not have any power over your descendants unless your descendants rebel against me, too.
24 “If your descendants fight against me, your brothers and their descendants will make trouble for them, to help them remember to keep my commandments.”
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