Lehi was one of the many prophets at Jerusalem who predicted the calamities which befell the Jewish nation on the second invasion of Judea by King Nebuchadnezzar, early in the sixth century B. C.[[35]] Lehi incurred the wrath of that ungodly people and was warned of God in a vision to depart from Jerusalem with his family, and was also promised that inasmuch as he would keep the commandments of God he should be led to a land of promise.[[36]] From the wilderness where Lehi temporarily dwelt, two expeditions to the fated city were made by his sons: one to obtain a genealogy of his fathers, and the Jewish scriptures (which resulted also in adding one more to the colony in the person of Zoram, a servant of Laban, a keeper of the Jewish records); the second, to induce one Ishmael and his family to join Lehi's colony in their exodus from Jerusalem and journey to the promised land. In both of these expeditions they were successful in achieving their object. The colony now consisted of some eighteen adult persons and a number of children.[[37]]
From the Book of Mormon and the word of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith it is learned that Lehi's colony traversed from Jerusalem, nearly a southeast direction, until they came to the nineteenth degree north latitude; thence nearly east to the sea of Arabia.[[38]] Here the colony built a ship in which to cross the great waters, which separated them from the land of promise. They sailed in a southeasterly direction, and landed on the continent of South America, in about thirty degrees south latitude.[[39]]
From Jerusalem their journey to the promised land is supposed to have occupied about twelve years.[[40]] On their arrival at the land of promise, the colony went forth upon it, and began to till the earth. The seeds brought from the land of Jerusalem were planted and thrived exceedingly well. The colony also found the land of promise well furnished with beasts of every kind; with the cow, the ass, the horse, the goat, and all manner of wild animals which were for the use of man. They also found all manner of ore, especially gold, silver, and copper. Here they dwelt for some time in prosperity, but scarcely in peace; for there were dissensions in the colony. The elder sons of Lehi, Laman and Lemuel, were of a jealous and skeptical turn of mind; and from the beginning had little faith in the visions of their father, and the prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. Nephi, the younger brother, on the other hand, was a man of profound faith in his father's revelations, and in the things of God, and sought for a personal knowledge of the things revealed. This knowledge he received through the revelations of God, which, coupled with the native qualities that go to the making of a leader of men, he became, even before the death of his father, the real head of the community. This aroused the displeasure and even hatred of the elder brothers, who, on various occasions sought his overthrow and even his life. This division between the sons of Lehi extended also to the community, and made a division of the colony ultimately inevitable. Accordingly, after some years spent upon the promised land, Nephi was warned by the Lord to depart from his elder brothers into the wilderness, with all those whom he could persuade to go with him. Neither the distance nor the direction of this first remove of the righteous part of the colony from the more wicked part, can be definitely determined from the Book of Mormon, except from the location of the people of Nephi in subsequent times; and as this location was far northward from their first place of landing, it is generally supposed that this first remove was northward. Perhaps at the first the partisans of the elder brothers were well contented to be relieved of the presence of the younger brother and his following; but for no great length of time; for they followed in their wake, and before forty years had passed away (supposedly from the time that Lehi's colony left Jerusalem; and if so then twenty-eight years from their landing in the western hemisphere) the two divisions of the colony had wars and contentions with each other.[[41]]
Nephi, as would reasonably be expected, took with him the Jewish scriptures which had been brought from Jerusalem, the genealogy of his fathers, together with all the records kept upon the journey to the promised land. Nephi's policy tended to civilization; for he taught his people to erect buildings, "and to work all manner of wood and of iron and of copper and of brass and of steel and of gold and of silver and of precious ores, which were in great abundance." He also built a temple, somewhat after the pattern of the temple of Solomon, and ordained as priests his two younger brothers, Jacob and Joseph, born to Lehi in the wilderness, after the departure of the colony from Jerusalem.
Notwithstanding the protests of Nephi against such a proceeding his people insisted upon his becoming their king, an office he discharged all his days purely in the interest of his people. His policy inculcated industry and encouragement of arts and civilization. Knowing, however, the implacable hatred of his elder brothers, Nephi did not fail to make preparations for vigorous defense in the event of war, and accordingly manufactured both arms and armor for his people. In consequence of the high esteem in which Nephi was held, the kings of the Nephites thereafter took the name of Nephi, as their official or regal name, and were distinguished by being called II Nephi, III Nephi, IV Nephi, and so following.
While the course of Nephi and his people tended to the establishment of civilization, the course of the elder brothers and their following tended to barbarism. They delighted in idleness; and as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind; and a curse fell upon them, even the curse of a dark skin, so that they became loathsome in appearance as in habits. As the followers of Nephi took upon them the name of their leader and were called Nephites, so, in course of time, the followers of the elder brothers took the name of their leader and were called Lamanites, after Laman, the eldest son of Lehi; hence two people from Lehi's colony, Nephites and Lamanites. The Lamanites lived upon the fruits of the chase, hence were nomadic and predatory in their habits. They were full of envy, strife, malice; they were fierce, warlike, murderous. Between these two peoples there was almost constant warfare. The Lamanites the more fierce and numerous; the Nephites fewer in number, but better armed, and protected by armor; the former were the aggressors, the latter acted on the defensive, and usually were conscious of the better cause. At times, however, the Nephites lapsed into wickedness and on such occasion the Lamanites truly were a scourge unto them, in fulfilment of God's word to that effect.[[42]] A particularly severe judgment is said to have overtaken the Nephites in the first quarter of the fourth century from the time Lehi left Jerusalem, in which the more wicked part of the people were destroyed.[[43]] Some time in the fourth century from the time Lehi left Jerusalem occurred also a second great removal of righteous Nephites from the midst of their brethren and the Lamanites. The first separation in Lehi's colony, it will be remembered, was made under the I Nephi. The second was made under the prophet-king known as I Mosiah, and resulted in the Nephites finding the people of Zarahemla, of which more hereafter.
It is supposed that the first remove of the Nephites from their brethren covered no great distance; as only a few years passed before they were in contact with one another again, at least in warfare. Indeed Elder George Reynolds, in his Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, holds to the theory that there may have been several removals of the Nephites between their first separation from the Lamanites under the First Nephi, and the very noted hegira under Mosiah I, about the fourth century of the Nephite annals.[[44]] The author of the Dictionary urges as the reasons for his theory that it would be inconsistent with the story of the record (Book of Mormon), and with good judgment, to believe that in their first journey the Nephites traveled as far north as they were found four hundred years later,[[45]] when the very noted remove was made under Mosiah I. I believe the reasons of Elder Reynolds are quite sufficient for his theory. The movements of the Nephites were most probably as follows: Whatever of conquest was made by the Lamanites upon Nephite possessions, during the first four centuries of their occupancy of the promised land, was made upon their southern borders. On the other hand the Nephite settlements were extended on that side of their possessions least likely to be assailed by their enemies, where there was least danger, that is, on the north. These two circumstances combined to give their colonization movement a northerly direction; until about the close of the fourth Nephite century they are supposed to have been in possession of that part of the continent of South America corresponding to the country now called Ecuador.[[46]] This country that the Nephites occupied at the close of the fourth century of their annals, as also that which they had slowly colonized, and from time to time abandoned to their enemies—the whole distance from the place selected by the First Nephi after separating from his brothers to the place they occupied at the close of the fourth century of their annals—this whole country—the Nephites called the Land of Nephi, or the Land of their father's first inheritance.[[47]]
The story of the second great hegira of righteous Nephites from their less righteous brethren is a very brief one. It was undertaken in response to a warning and commandment of God to one Mosiah, who is celebrated in Nephite history as the first king of what I shall call the Nephite-Zarahemla nation—Mosiah I. How great the distance covered in this second great hegira of the Nephites may not be definitely determined; but later a colony under conditions somewhat similar, that is, encumbered with women and children, flocks, herds, and quantities of grain, etc., covered practically the same journey in about twenty-two days, in two separate stages; one of eight and the other of fourteen days.[[48]]
Mosiah's people, when they reached the great and beautiful valley drained by what was subsequently called among the Nephites the river Sidon,[[49]] found it inhabited by a numerous people, whose chief city was named (at least from that time forth) Zarahemla. At this point it becomes necessary to suspend the account of Mosiah's people in order to say a word of the people inhabiting the valley of the Sidon, for they are the descendants of the third colony which, according to the Book of Mormon, came to the land of promise.