LeGrand L. Baker

1 Nephi 16:18  

18. And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, that was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.

The Hiltons described the climatic situation that would cause Nephi’s bow to break.{1}

But despite the dreadful weather in this area along the coast of the Red Sea, we were excited, for it helped us realize how Nephi’s steel bow might have broken and how the wooden bows of his brothers might have lost their springs. (For biblical references to steel bows, see 2 Sam. 22:35 and Job 20:24.) The bow-breaking incident occurred after the party had traveled “for the space of many days” (Nephi repeats that phrase twice, both in 1 Nephi 16:15 and in 16:17) and had pitched camp to rest for a season. This would have been natural for a party traveling at a speed dictated by the presence of women and children. Since Nephi says they again traveled “for the space of many days” (1 Nephi 16:33) to reach Nahom after leaving this camp of the broken bow, it may have been halfway between Shazer and Nahom. If so, the incident may have been roughly in the vicinity of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where the weather is a merciless combination of heat, humidity, sand, and salt–forces strong enough to destroy steel by rust. Between March and November the heat is pitiless. Even in late January the daytime temperature hovers around 85 degrees. Humidity averages about 60 per-cent year round, and in the more moist part of a fifteen-year cycle the humidity rises to a yearly average of 92 percent. Unpainted iron or steel simply cannot survive long in such conditions.

Might this also have happened to Nephi’s bow? Weakened by rust, it could have snapped in his hands when he drew it to its limit. The climate would also explain why his brothers’ bows lost their springs at or around the same time. Since they were wooden bows, they would have remained tensile and strong in the dry area around Jerusalem; but several years in the humid climate along the Red Sea’s coastal plain would inevitably have caused them to absorb moisture until they became as limber as saplings. In fact, acquaintances of ours reported moisture absorption in some of their wooden possessions.{2}

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FOOTNOTES

{1} For a discussion of ways Nephi’s bow might have been only partly steel see S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006),
66-67.

{2} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969), 114.
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1 Nephi 16:11 

11 And it came to pass that we did gather together whatsoever things we should carry into the wilderness, and all the remainder of our provisions which the Lord had given unto us; and we did take seed of every kind that we might carry into the wilderness.

There has been a great deal of research about the course Lehi and his family traveled along the Red Sea. Much of this has shown that the author of First Nephi had a first-hand knowledge of that area, and that the Prophet Joseph could not have had access to that information even if he had used the finest libraries in the United States and Europe. Nephi’s description of the geography through which he traveled is just one more evidence of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.{1}
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FOOTNOTE

{1} For discussions of Lehi’s travels, see, Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969).
S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006).
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1 Nephi 16:9-10  

9 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord spake unto my father by night, and commanded him that on the morrow he should take his journey into the wilderness.
10 And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.

Whenever the Lord gives assignments to his servants, he also provides a way for them to accomplish them (cf: 1 Nephi 3:7). Here, the Lord gave Lehi instructions in the night, and the next morning Lehi found the Liahona that would give him and his family more explicit directions. Nephi gives us only a sketchy description of what it looked like, a round ball of curious workmanship, made of fine brass. “And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.”

Later, Nephi called it “the ball, or compass, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord” (2 Nephi 5:12).{1}

King Benjamin called it “the ball or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared by the hand of the Lord that thereby they might be led, every one according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him” (Mosiah 1:16).

Its name, “Liahona” is found only once in the Book of Mormon when Alma spoke of it as “the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it” (Alma 37:38).

Nibley wrote that many have tried to find a Hebrew equivalent to the name. Then, after assuring his readers that there was no certainty about the meaning of Liahona, he wrote,

Our own preference has always been for le-yah-hon-na, literally, ‘to God is our commanding,’ i.e. ‘God is our guide,’ since hon hwn, is the common Egyptian word for ‘lead, guide, take command.’ This might be supported by the oldest and commonest of all known inscriptions in divination arrows: ‘My Lord hath commanded me’….{2}

He identified eleven remarkable features of the of the Liahona. They were:

1. The Liahona was a gift of God, the manner of its delivery causing great astonishment.
2. It was neither mechanical nor self-operating, but worked solely by the power of God.
3. It functioned only in response to the faith, diligence, and heed of those who followed it.
4. And yet there was something ordinary and familiar about it. The thing itself was the “small means” through which God worked; it was not a mysterious or untouchable object but strictly a “temporal thing.”…
5. The working parts of the device were two spindles or pointers.
6. On these a special writing would appear from time to time, clarifying and amplifying the message of the pointers.
7. The specific purpose of the traversing indicators was “to point the way they should go.”
8. The two pointers were mounted in a brass or bronze sphere whose marvelous workmanship excited great wonder and admiration. Special instructions sometimes appeared on this ball.
9. The device was referred to descriptively as a ball, functionally as a director, and in both senses as a “compass” or Liahona.
10. On occasion, it saved Lehi’s people from perishing by land and sea—“if they would look they might live” (Alma 37:46).
11. It was preserved “for a wise purpose” (“Alma 37:2, 14, 18) long after it had ceased to function, having been prepared specifically to guide Lehi’s party to the promised land. It was a “type and shadow” of man’s relationship to God during his earthly journey.{3}

In at least one of its features it functioned like the Urim and Thummim, for on occasion written messages would appear on it that were addressed to Lehi and his family (1 Nephi 16:26-29).{4} Even though there is no record that it was used by Book of Mormon prophets after the time of Nephi, it was preserved with other sacred items, and was shown to the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses in 1829 along with the Book of Mormon plates (D&C 17:1).

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FOOTNOTES

{1} He called it a ball when it was first given to his father (1 Nephi 16:16-27) and a compass when it failed to work during his brothers’ rebellion on the sea (1 Nephi 18:11-13)

{2} Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City. Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), Footnote 80 of chapter 9, “Some Fairly Foolproof Tests.” For his explanation of “divination arrows” see Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City. Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 257)

{3} Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd ed. 253-54.

{4} Examples of the Lord’s giving Joseph Smith messages through the Urim and Thummim are: D&C 6:1-4 (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols., [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932-1951], 1:32 – 33), D&C 11:1-3 (History of The Church, 1:44), and D&C 17:1 (History of The Church 1:52 -53)
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1 Nephi 16:36-37

36 And thus they did murmur against my father, and also against me; and they were desirous to return again to Jerusalem.
37 And Laman said unto Lemuel and also unto the sons of Ishmael: Behold, let us slay our father, and also our brother Nephi, who has taken it upon him to be our ruler and our teacher, who are his elder brethren.

Laman’s motives may have been more complex than a simple desire to return to Jerusalem. He was the oldest son—his was the legal birthright. As long as his father lived, Laman had to obey him, and could not claim his rightful inheritance. His father listened to Nephi, and between them they had determined to go on this seemingly absurd journey. Ishmael was now dead, so his sons could also inherit if they were to return to the city and their estates. If Lehi and Nephi were dead, then Laman and the others could return and claim the wealth of which they had been deprived. The rationale seemed simple enough, and there were none to challenge either its execution or its intended outcome.

Laman’s argument took into account all the miraculous things they had experienced, but claimed they were performed by “cunning arts,” and therefore were of no real consequence. However, the Lord had promised Lehi and Nephi that they would have the power to fulfill their assignments, just as he made that promise to each of us.{1} Now, as Lehi’s sons and sons-in-law plot his assassination, the Lord himself asserted his power to fulfill his covenants with his prophets and to help them fulfill theirs.
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FOOTNOTE

{1} For a discussion of the “covenant of invulnerability” see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, first edition, 285-89; second edition, 201-04.
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1 Nephi 16:34-35 — LeGrand Baker — “Ishmael died”

34. And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place that was called Nahom.
35. And it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly, because of the loss of their father, and because of their afflictions in the wilderness; and they did murmur against my father, because he had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, saying: Our father is dead; yea, and we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and after all these sufferings we must perish in the wilderness with hunger.

Nahom is the only city mentioned by Nephi as he traveled from Jerusalem to Bountiful. The southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, where Nahom is located, was a hub of the ancient frankincense trails. Nahom still has the ancient name (written anciently NHM), but now the spelling is Nahm. It also has a very large and very ancient cemetery where the desert people brought their dead to bury them. It is significant that Nephi reported that Ishmael was buried at Nahom, but he does not say that he died there. If one looks at a map of the Arabian peninsula as a boot with the toe pointing toward the east, Nahom is located near the Red Sea at the indent that would be the top of the heel of the boot. If one draws a line from there almost due east (just as Nephi says), one will end the line very near the place that was likely Nephi’s Bountiful.

The location of Nahom was first proposed by Ross T. Christensen, a BYU professor of archaeology, in a letter published in the Ensign in August, 1978.{1} Prof. Christensen had discovered, on a 1763 map, a place called “Nehhm” about twenty-five miles northeast of the Yemen capital Sana’a. Some years later, Warren P. Aston read the Ensign article and determined to investigate.{2} About that same time, the Hiltons, who had lived in the Near East for many years, visited the city and reported their findings.{3} Since then, several LDS scholars have pursued the question of Nahom and the trail followed by Lehi and his party.{4}

When Brown and his associates visited the burial sites, they reported:

We were fascinated at the way these mummies were wrapped in leather with their knees pulled up in a kind of prenatal position. Long slabs of rock were formed into a coffin for the body, and then the mound of rock was built over it. They were not small mounds, and there were thousands of them.{5}
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FOOTNOTES

{1} Ross T. Christensen, “The Place Called Nahom,” Ensign (August 1978): 73.

{2} The product of their work was: Warren P. Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence for Lehi’s Journey across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994).

{3} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Utah, Cedar Fort, 1996).

{4} For additional insights on the location and importance of Nahom, see: Warren P. Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, “The Place Which Was Called Nahom,” In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence for Lehi’s Journey across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994), 5, 19.
See also:
Eugene England, “Through the Arabian Desert to a Bountiful Land: Could Joseph Smith Have Known the Way?” in Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1982), 148 – 154.
Mark J. Johnson, “The Exodus of Lehi Revisited.” FARMS Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 1994), 123-26.
Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), 92.
“Book of Mormon Near Eastern Background” in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols.,(New York: Macmillan, 1992), 187-90).
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, edited by John W. Welch with Darrell L. Matthews and Stephen R. Callister (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 76.
Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon–Semester 1: Transcripts of Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1990 (Provo: FARMS, 219.
Daniel C. Peterson, “Shall We Not Go On in So Great a Cause?” in Susan Easton Black, ed., Expressions of Faith: Testimonies of Latter-day Saint Scholars (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1996), 127-37.
John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1991), 92).
Sidney B. Sperry, Book of Mormon Compendium (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968), 124.
John W. Welch, “Lehi’s Trail and Nahom Revisited,” in John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992),47-49.
S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 19.

{5} S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 119.
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1 Nephi 16:32-33  

32 And it came to pass that I did return to our tents, bearing the beasts which I had slain; and now when they beheld that I had obtained food, how great was their joy! And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord, and did give thanks unto him.
33 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey, traveling nearly the same course as in the beginning; and after we had traveled for the space of many days we did pitch our tents again, that we might tarry for the space of a time.

Again the reference to his tents, this time following their acceptance to the instructions they received through the Liahona and their finding food. Nephi reported that they stayed in this new campsite ”for the space of a time.” He does not report the cause for this delay or even suggest that it was an unwelcome delay. Perhaps they stopped because they were near the city Nahom, and they sought provisions there. Perhaps it was to do missionary work among those people. Perhaps it was because Ishmael was too ill to travel. Perhaps all three reasons played into their decision.

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