Words to the Pure in Heart
I, Jacob, want to speak to those who have pure hearts. Look to God with a strong mind. Pray to him with great faith. He will comfort you in your troubles. He will defend you. He will bring justice on those who want to destroy you. All of you with pure hearts, lift up your heads. Receive God’s wonderful word. Enjoy his love. You can do this forever if your minds stay strong.
Warning to the Wicked
But trouble will come to those whose hearts are not pure. You are dirty before God today. Unless you change your ways, the land will be cursed because of you. The Lamanites are not as dirty as you. They have been cursed. But they will attack you until you are destroyed. The time is coming quickly. Unless you change your ways, they will take your land. The Lord God will lead the good people away from you.
The Lamanites Are More Righteous
You hate your Lamanite brothers because of their dirty ways and dark skin. But they are better than you. They have not forgotten the Lord’s commandment given to our fathers. They should have only one wife. They should not have other women. They should not do sexual sins. They keep this commandment. Because they obey it, the Lord God will not destroy them. He will be kind to them. One day they will become a blessed people. Their husbands love their wives. Their wives love their husbands. They both love their children. They don’t believe in God and hate you because of what their fathers did wrong. So how are you better than them in God’s eyes? My brothers, I am afraid for you. Unless you change your ways, their skin will be whiter than yours. This will happen when you stand with them before God.
Remember Your Own Sins
So I give you a commandment from God. Don’t speak badly about them because of their dark skin. Don’t speak badly about their dirty ways. Remember your own dirty ways. Remember that they became dirty because of their fathers. Remember your children. You have made their hearts sad by your bad example. Remember that your dirty ways might destroy your children. Their sins will be blamed on you at the last day. My brothers, listen to my words. Wake up your souls. Shake yourselves. Wake up from the sleep of death. Free yourselves from the pains of hell. Don’t become angels to the Devil. Don’t be thrown into the lake of fire. That is the second death.
Jacob Ends His Words
I said many more things to Nephi’s people. I warned them against sexual sins and every kind of sin. I told them the terrible things that would happen because of these sins. I can’t write even one percent of what this people did. They had become many people. But many of their stories are written on the larger plates. Their wars, fights, and the rules of their kings are written there. These plates are called the plates of Jacob. Nephi made them with his own hands. I end my words here.
Influences
- 3:4 — John 16:2 (KJV)They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
- 3:9 — Ephesians 6:17 (KJV)And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
- 3:11 — Revelation 21:8 (KJV)But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
- 3:11 — Revelation 21:8 (KJV)But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
- 3:12 — 2 Corinthians 12:21 (KJV)And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
Notes
- 3:8-9
The 1830 edition of 2 Nephi 30:6 read, “shall be a white and delightsome people.” In 1840, this wording was changed to “shall be a pure and a delightsome people.” However, in 1841 the text was reverted back to “white and delightsome.” It was not changed again to “pure and delightsome” until 1981—three years after the 1978 lifting of the priesthood ban.
Although many Latter-day Saints argue that “white” should be understood metaphorically as referring to righteousness or purity rather than race or ethnicity, statements from LDS leaders leave little ambiguity about how these passages were historically interpreted. Here are just a few statements from LDS authorities:
“You may inquire of the intelligent of the world whether they can tell why the aborigines of this country are dark, loathsome, ignorant, and sunken into the depths of degradation …When the Lord has a people, he makes covenants with them and gives unto them promises: then, if they transgress his law, change his ordinances, and break his covenants he has made with them, he will put a mark upon them, as in the case of the Lamanites and other portions of the house of Israel; but by-and-by they will become a white and delightsome people” (Journal of Discourses 7:336).
At the October 1960 LDS Church Conference, Spencer Kimball utilized 2 Nephi 30:6 when he stated how the Indians “are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.” He said,
“The [Indian] children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation” (Improvement Era, December 1960, pp. 922-3).
During the same message Kimball referred to a 16-year-old Indian girl who was both LDS and “several shades lighter than her parents…” He went on to say,
“These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.”
Elder Eugene J. Neff, in a 1927 conference message claimed, “The first missionaries went from this section around to another little town on the east side of the island, and there they gathered in a grass hut one hundred people to hear the message of these strange white men, As they all sat around the mat and heard the voice of this missionary from Utah, they were transfigured before George Q. Cannon, and he saw ninety-seven of them become white, and three of them remained dark. He did not understand. He did not know why it was that three of them would remain dark and all the rest should become light. He received a partial answer to this manifestation when it was learned that ninety-seven of those people in meeting at this time joined the Church, became devout members, lived and died Latter-day Saints, while three of them never did. It is said that they will become a white and delightsome people. They are delightsome at present, and I believe they are going to become white. They are growing whiter from year to year. I have said to myself and to some of my intimate friends that I thought the Hawaiian people would become white and delightsome, through intermarriage. I do not know whether that is according to the doctrines of the Church or not, but they have married the oriental races and married white people on the islands to such an extent that today there are more half casts than there are pure Hawaiians” (Conference Report, April 1927, p.49).
The Juvenile Instructor (26:635) reads, “From this it is very clear that the mark which was set upon the descendants of Cain was a skin of blackness, and there can be no doubt that this was the mark that Cain himself received; in fact, it has been noticed in our day that men who have lost the spirit of the Lord, and from whom his blessings have been withdrawn, have turned dark to such an extend as to excite the comments of all who have known them.”
See also 2 Nephi 5:21; 2 Nephi 30:6; 3 Nephi 2:15-16; Jacob 3:8-9; Alma 3:6.