Laman, Lemuel, and Sam waited outside the city walls as
Nephi entered the city. As he went
forward, he was led by the Spirit. He
had no idea what he was going to do.
Hugh Nibley wrote, “Nephi goes on. He was led by the spirit. This
passage reassures anybody. ‘And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand
the things which I should do’ (1 Nephi 4:6). This is a very popular passage in
the Book of Mormon because inside of all of us there comes that time when you
are led by the Spirit not knowing what you should do. Yet you are willing to be
led. What does your own judgment have to do with it?”[1]
As Nephi approached Laban’s home, he noticed a man had
passed out on the street, drunk. As he approached
him, he found it was Laban lying on the ground.
Nephi was attracted to Laban’s sword,
He described “the hilt thereof was
of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that
the blade thereof was of the most precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9).
While looking at the sword, Nephi was compelled by the
Spirit to kill Laban. The teenage Nephi
rejected the Spirit. He had never killed
anyone. He did not want any part of
this. Steven L. Olsen explores Nephi’s
experience.
From all perspectives, Nephi’s killing of Laban was
traumatic. As viewed by the contemporary Jewish leaders at Jerusalem, the event
was likely remembered as the murder of a defenseless religious leader, the
theft of a sacred scriptural treasure, and the kidnap of a trusted servant.
Even by his own account, Nephi initially resisted the Spirit’s directive to
take Laban’s life, the only recorded instance in which Nephi questioned, even
for a moment, the wisdom of divine inspiration (1 Nephi 4:10)…
Responding immediately to Nephi’s hesitancy, the Spirit
informs him, “Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands.” The
structural similarity between the two declarations—“the Lord will deliver Laban
into your hands” and “the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands”—suggests that
the angel intends Nephi to take the opportunity as direct fulfillment of the
promise. As a way of processing this realization, Nephi begins to entertain
reasons why Laban is deserving of death. Nephi’s initial justifications,
however, reveal a decidedly human and personal perspective: Laban had sought to
kill Nephi and his brothers, had been disobedient to God’s commands, and had
stolen Lehi’s family wealth (1 Nephi 4:10–11).[2]
While he rejected the Spirit, he began to think. Laban had tried to kill him. He would not respond to the Lord’s
commandments. He had stolen their
property.
The Spirit again spoke to him commanding him to slay
Laban. He had been delivered into his
hands by the Lord. “[T]he Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes”
(1 Nephi 4:13).
David wrote, “Surely
thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men” (Psalms
139:19). In dealing with those who
persecuted the church, the Lord told Joseph Smith:
Nevertheless, thine
enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou
art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him,
thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified.
Behold, this is the
law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy fathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and
Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles.
D&C 98:31 - 32
The Spirit would add, “It
is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and
perish in unbelief” (1 Nephi 4:13).
Alma would use this reasoning when dealing with Korihor. “But
behold, it is better that thy soul should be lost than that thou shouldst be
the means of bringing many souls down to destruction, by thy lying and by thy
flattering words; therefore if thou shalt deny again, behold God shall smite
thee, that thou shalt become dumb, that thou shalt never open thy mouth any
more, that thou shalt not deceive this people any more” (Alma 30:47).
Nephi then remembered the Lord’s words that, if his people
keep the commandments of the Lord, they will prosper in the land. King Benjamin taught, “And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments;
and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should
prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said;
therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you”
(Mosiah 2:22).
Nephi realized if they didn’t have the commandments or the
law of Moses, they could not keep the Lord’s commandments. The law and commandments were engraven on the
brass plates and would be available to his people. King Benjamin told his sons, “I say unto you, my sons, were it not for
these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we
might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always
before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we
should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing
concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them,
because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct” (Mosiah 1:5).
He concluded Laban was delivered into his hands so he would
get the brass plates and the Lord’s commandments. He obeyed the Spirit and smote off Laban’s
head with his sword. Hugh Nibley writes:
At long last, and with great
reluctance, Nephi did the deed. If the Book of Mormon were a work of fiction,
nothing would have been easier than to have Laban already dead when Nephi found
him (killed perhaps in a drunken brawl) or simply to omit altogether an episode
which obviously distressed the writer quite as much as it does the reader,
though the slaying of Laban is no more reprehensible than was the beheading of
the unconscious Goliath.[3]
We can be sure Nephi was commanded by the Spirit to slay
Laban. Val Larsen tells us, “The
critical point is this: if he had been acting as a private citizen according to
his own will, Nephi would not have killed Laban.”[4]
[1] Lecture 11: 1 Nephi 4-7, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah:
Maxwell Institute, accessed January 8, 2013.
[2] The
Death of Laban, Steven L. Olsen, Provo, Utah: Maxwell
Institute, accessed January 8, 2013.
[3] Escapade
in Jerusalem, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed January 8, 2013.
[4] Killing
Laban: The Birth of Sovereignty in the Nephite Constitutional Order, Val
Larsen, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed January 8,
2013.
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