The Book of Jacob, the brother of Nephi — Chapter 1
1 Fifty-five years after Lehi left Jerusalem, Nephi talked to me, Jacob, about these plates.
2 He told me to write the things I thought were most important on them, and to write only a little bit of the history of this people (the Nephites) on them.
3 He said that the history should be written on the other plates. I must give these plates to my children to hand down from generation to generation.
4 If there are any holy teachings, or great revelations or prophecies, I must write down as many of them as I can on these plates, for the good of Christ and our people.
5 We had been shown what would happen to our people because of our faith, and because we were very worried about them.
6 We had many revelations and prophecies, too, so we knew about Christ and his kingdom to come.
7 So we worked very hard to teach our people to come to Christ, and know for themselves about God’s goodness, so they would live with him again–so he would not be angry with them nor punish them as he punished the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness.
8 We wish to God we could teach all people not to fight against God and make him angry, but instead to believe in Christ, and learn about his death on the cross, and be good even when the world makes it hard to be good. So I, Jacob, will do what my brother Nephi commanded me.
9 Nephi got old and knew he was going to die soon, so he chose a man to be the new king over the people.what he wants.
10 The people loved Nephi very much for protecting them with the sword of Laban and working hard for their good all his life.
11 The people wanted to always remember him, so they called all the kings who came after him Nephi (such as Second Nephi, Third Nephi, and so on), no matter what their real names were. This way the people would always be called the people of Nephi, or Nephites.
12 Then Nephi died.
13 The people who were not Lamanites were Nephites, but they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites. The Lamanites were called Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites.
14 But I, Jacob, will call all those who hate Nephi’s people Lamanites, and I will call all the Nephites’ friends Nephites.
15 While Second Nephi was king, the people began to get wicked. The men wanted to have more than one wife, just as David and Solomon did long ago.
16 They also began looking for gold and silver, and began to get proud.
17 So I, Jacob, taught them these words in the temple after the Lord told me what to say.
18 Nephi had made me, Jacob, and my brother Joseph priests and teachers over the people.
19 We worked very hard to do what the Lord had chosen us to do. We said we would pay for our people’s sins if we did not work as hard as we could to teach them right things.
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