# 1 Nephi 3

*Paraphrase*

### The Command to Return

I, Nephi, came back from praying to find my father waiting in his tent. 'I had a dream,' he told me. 'The Lord wants you and your brothers to go back to Jerusalem.' 'Laban has the Jewish records and our family history written on brass plates.' 'The Lord commands you and your brothers to get those records from Laban’s house and bring them here to the wilderness.'

'Your brothers are complaining that this is too hard. But listen—this isn’t my idea. It’s the Lord’s command.' 'Go, my son. The Lord will favor you because you don’t complain.' I said to my father, 'I’ll go and do what the Lord commands. I know God never asks us to do something without giving us a way to do it.' My father was overjoyed when he heard this. He knew the Lord had blessed me.

### First Attempt: Laman Goes Alone

My brothers and I packed our tents and headed for Jerusalem. When we reached Jerusalem, we huddled together to make a plan. We drew lots to see who would go to Laban’s house. Laman lost. So he went to Laban’s house and found him sitting there. He asked Laban for the brass plates that contained our father’s genealogy. Laban exploded with rage and threw him out. 'You’re a thief!' he shouted. 'I’ll kill you!'

Laman ran back to us and told us what happened. We were crushed. My brothers wanted to give up and go back to Father.

### Second Attempt: Offering Their Wealth

But I said, 'As surely as God lives and we live, we’re not going back to Father until we’ve done what the Lord commanded.' 'Let’s stay faithful to God’s commands. I have an idea—let’s go to our father’s old property. He left behind gold, silver, and all kinds of treasures when God commanded him to leave.' 'He knew Jerusalem would be destroyed because the people are so wicked.' 'They rejected the prophets' warnings. If Father had stayed after God told him to flee, he would have died with them. He had to leave.'

'God knows we need these records. They’ll preserve our language for our children.' 'They’ll also preserve all the words the holy prophets have spoken by God’s Spirit and power since the world began.' My words convinced my brothers to stay faithful to God’s commands.

We went to our father’s property and gathered up all the gold, silver, and precious things. Then we went back to Laban’s house. We offered him all our gold, silver, and precious things in exchange for the brass plates. When Laban saw how much wealth we had, greed consumed him. He threw us out and sent his servants to kill us so he could steal everything. We ran for our lives, abandoning all our property. Laban kept it all. We escaped into the wilderness. Laban’s servants couldn’t catch us. We hid in a cave.

### An Angel Intervenes

Laman was furious with me and Father. So was Lemuel—he always took Laman’s side. They screamed at Sam and me, their younger brothers, and beat us with a rod. While they were beating us, an angel of the Lord appeared. 'Why are you beating your younger brother with a rod?' the angel demanded. 'Don’t you know the Lord has chosen him to rule over you because of your sins? Go back to Jerusalem. The Lord will deliver Laban into your hands.' Then the angel left.

After the angel disappeared, Laman and Lemuel started complaining again. 'How can the Lord deliver Laban to us? He’s powerful—he commands fifty men. He could kill fifty men. What chance do we have?'

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*Source: [The Book of Mormon](https://bookofmormon.com/paraphrase/1-nephi/3)*
