Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Jacob 3:9-11


9 Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.
10 Wherefore, ye shall remember your children, how that ye have grieved their hearts because of the example that ye have set before them; and also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness, bring your children unto destruction, and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the last day.
11 O my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death; and loose yourselves from the pains of hell that ye may not become angels to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death.
Jacob 3:9-11

Having made it clear that the Lamanites were more righteous than the Nephites, he commands them to revile no longer against the Lamanites neither because of the darkness of their skins nor because of their filthiness.  He reminded them to remember their own filthiness, which they brought upon themselves.  The Lamanite filthiness came upon them because of their fathers. 

“Likewise, Jacob encourages the Nephites of his day not to persecute their brethren ‘because of the darkness of their skins’ (Jacob 3:9). In the same passage, Jacob uses the term filthiness to refer to the Lamanites. It is clear from the passage that the term filthiness is meant metaphorically rather than literally (i.e., ‘morally impure’ rather than ‘unwashed’) because Jacob applies the term equally to the Nephites (‘remember your own filthiness’) and accounts for the filthiness of the Lamanites in cultural terms (‘their filthiness came because of their fathers’). Because body parts and other descriptors are used metaphorically in these passages, it is possible that Nephi and Jacob use allusions to skin color also in a metaphorical sense.”[1]

Richard Bushman also observes:

“…[W]e would gravely err to consider the Lamanites hopelessly benighted and persistently ferocious, hardened, and indolent in nature. Jacob warned against that error when he told his own people, speaking of the Lamanites, to ‘revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness’ (Jacob 3:9). The Lamanites who turned to Christ are among the most faithful and self-sacrificing in the Book of Mormon, giving themselves to be slaughtered rather than return to their sins. Even before conversion, they were faithful to each other in their families, at a time when the Nephites had taken up concubinage.”[2]

Remember, he told the fathers, you’ve broken your children’s hearts because of their examples.  Remember, Jacob says, you may bring the destruction of your children because of your filthiness and their sins will be “heaped upon your heads at the last day.”

Jacob tells them to hearken to his words.  “[A]rouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death.”  He warns them to “loose yourselves from the pains of hell.”  Nephi wrote similar words.  “And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21).

Alma2 told the people of Zarahemla:

“And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?  Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them?  And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?
“Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.  Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them” (Alma 5:6-7).

The theme of remembrance is common in Jacob’s sermons as well as the Book of Mormon.

Jacob is repeating what he said earlier to the Nephites.  “And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness” (2 Nephi 9:9).

Louis Midgley comments on the importance of remembering.

“Since remembering is not merely recalling something, but rather an action of the soul, what specific actions were the Nephites admonished by their prophets to take? The Book of Mormon tells us that they were to hearken (see, for example, Jacob 3:11), soften the heart, awaken, see, hear, believe, or trust, as the examples below demonstrate. Overall these actions involved turning to God.”[3] 

Alyson Skabelund Von Feldt also writes:

“[Lehi] begs his sons to ‘remember,’ ‘hearken unto [his] words,’ and ‘awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell’ (2 Nephi 1:12—13). Nephi pleads with his own soul to ‘awake . . . ! No longer droop in sin’ (2 Nephi 4:28). Jacob renews the call in Jacob 3:11: ‘O my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death.’[4]


[1] The Covenant of the Chosen People: The Spiritual Foundations of Ethnic Identity in the Book of Mormon, Steven L. Olsen, Maxwell Institute.
[2] The Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History, Richard L. Bushman, Maxwell Institute.
[3] To Remember and Keep: On the Book of Mormon as an Ancient Book, Louis Midgley, Maxwell Institute.
[4] "His Secret Is with the Righteous" Instructional Wisdom in the Book of Mormon, Alyson Skabelund Von Feldt, Maxwell Institute.

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