2 Nephi 5:1-4

Lehi has died.  Laman, Lemuel, and company are angry with Nephi. 

Chapter 5

The Nephites separate themselves from the Lamanites, keep the law of Moses, and build a temple—Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cursed, receive a skin of blackness, and become a scourge unto the Nephites. About 588–559 B.C.

Nephi continued to call upon his brethren to repent and turn away from their anger.  But, the more Nephi called on him to repent, the angrier they became. 

Laman and Lemuel continue to accuse Nephi of wanting to rule over them.  Once again, their response was, “Let’s kill him.  We are the oldest so we should rule over this people!”  It’s too bad they didn’t spend a little time actually thinking about the situation.  Why would Nephi want to rule over them?  They did nothing but complain and whine.  Nobody in their right mind would want to deal with this behavior for the rest of his life.  Laman and Lemuel never got it.

This was similar to their threats after Ishmael died.

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.

Now, he says that the Lord has talked with him, and also that angels have ministered unto him.  But behold, we know that he lies unto us; and he tells us these things, and he worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness; and after he has led us away, he has thought to make himself a king and a ruler over us, that he may do with us according to his will and pleasure. And after this manner did my brother Laman stir up their hearts to anger.

1 Nephi 16:37 - 38

They also conveniently forgot Lehi’s blessing.  They were promised Lehi’s first blessing if they cease murmuring and ceased to rebel against Nephi as he preached the word of God, they would receive his first blessing.  If they refused, the first blessing would rest upon Nephi (see 2 Nephi 1:24-29).  They made their choices and lost their blessings; however, it’s always easier to blame somebody else for all our problems than to have to admit we are responsible for our problems.

Moses also was accused of wanting to rule of the children of Israel.  “Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?” (Numbers 16:13).

As we read the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites carry the tradition of Nephi usurping Laman and Lemuel’s authority throughout their history.

Towards the end of Jacob’s life, (around 500 B.C.), he wrote:

And it came to pass that many means were devised to reclaim and restore the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth; but it all was vain, for they delighted in wars and bloodshed, and they had an eternal hatred against us, their brethren.  And they sought by the power of their arms to destroy us continually.

Jacob 7:24

Around 420 B.C., Jacob’s son, Enos, would write:

And I bear record that the people of Nephi did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God.  But our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax.  And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.

Enos 1:20

Some 300 years later, Zeniff would write:

[The Lamanites] were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea;

And again, they were wroth with [Nephi] when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken the ruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him.

Mosiah 10:12, 15

During the great Nephite and Lamanites wars a hundred years later, the leader of the Lamanites, Ammoron, would claim in his epistle to General Moroni₂,  “For behold, your fathers did wrong their brethren, insomuch that they did rob them of their right to the when it rightly belonged unto them” (Alma 54:17),

In some ways, the hatred Laman and Lemuel felt for Nephi was similar to the problems between Jacob and Esau.

The Nephites and Lamanites for whom Enos prayed were very much like Jacob and Esau. Nephi, like Jacob, had to flee with his family because his elder brothers Laman and Lemuel sought to kill him (2 Nephi 5:1–7). Nephi’s people were settled and industrious, constructing a temple and other buildings (2 Nephi 5:15– 17), while the Lamanites became “an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey” (2 Nephi 5:24). Enos later described the Lamanites as “wild and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax” (Enos 1:20) and noted that they sought to destroy the Nephites (Enos 1:14).

Similarly, the Bible describes Esau as 'a cunning hunter, a man of the field' (Genesis 25:26), who loved to hunt with the bow (Genesis 27:1-5). Before God for gave his sins, Enos 'went to hunt beasts in the forests,' where he remembered the words of his father, which prompted him to seek God's forgiveness (Enos 1:3-4). By describing himself as a hunter, Enos may have been comparing his preconversion self to the Lamanites and to Esau.[1]

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[1] FARMS Update: Jacob and Enos: Wrestling before God, Insights Volume - 21, Issue – 5, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed August 1, 2013.