11 And after he had made an end of speaking unto them, he
spake unto Sam, saying: Blessed art thou, and thy seed; for thou shalt inherit
the land like unto thy brother Nephi. And thy seed shall be numbered with his
seed; and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother, and thy seed like unto his
seed; and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days.
12 And it came to pass after my father, Lehi, had spoken
unto all his household, according to the feelings of his heart and the Spirit
of the Lord which was in him, he waxed old. And it came to pass that he died,
and was buried.
13 And it came to pass that not many days after his
death, Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael were angry with me because of
the admonitions of the Lord.
14 For I, Nephi, was constrained to speak unto them,
according to his word; for I had spoken many things unto them, and also my
father, before his death; many of which sayings are written upon mine other
plates; for a more history part are written upon mine other plates.
Earlier, Lehi had spoken, briefly, to Sam. “And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and
Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken
unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish.
And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a blessing, yea, even
my first blessing” (2 Nephi 1:28). He
know gives Sam his blessing.
We know virtually nothing of Sam. He’s the third son, just older than
Nephi. John Sorenson gives us this
description of Sam.
“Sam was the shy and retiring one of the four brothers, it
appears. Though older than Nephi, he followed him consistently (1 Nephi 2:17).
He may not have been very assertive; at least one would have thought that when
Laman and Lemuel ‘did smite us [two] even with a rod’ (1 Nephi 3:28-29) that he
could have combined efforts with Nephi (who was ‘large in stature’) to prevent
the beating. Furthermore, Sam was as frightened as Laman and Lemuel when Nephi,
dressed in Laban's clothes and accompanied by Zoram, approached them at night (1
Nephi 4:28). Perhaps his retiring if not passive nature is why his father in
his final blessing (2 Nephi 4:11), while saluting Sam's good heart and
behavior, could see that his descendants would not survive as a distinct entity
but would be incorporated into Nephi's tribe.”[1]
Unlike his other brothers, Sam’s descendants will not be a
tribe of their own. “[Sam’s descendants]
shall be numbered with [Nephi’s] seed” (2 Nephi 4:11). ““Now the people which were not Lamanites
were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites,
Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites” (Jacob 1:13). Notice Sam’s name is not included in Jacob’s
listing of the tribes.
While Nephi tells us little about Sam, Alma2 does
mention him. The Lamanites joined the
Amlicites in their rebellion against the Nephites. To distinguish themselves from the Nephites,
the Amlicites “were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked
themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites” (Alma
3:4). Explaining that the Amlicites did
this because of the curse that came upon Laman and Lemuel for their rebellion,
we read that this rebellion was against their brethren “who consisted of Nephi,
Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men” (Alma 3:6).
Thanks to Alma2’s record, we learn Sam was a “just
and holy [man].”
With Sam’s blessing, Lehi had finished his blessings,
teachings, and words to his family.
Sometime after this, Nephi tells us Lehi died and was buried.
John Sorenson observes:
“Second Nephi opens with Lehi teaching his family. His
historical resumé in 2 Nephi 1:1-5 sounds like only a short time had passed
since the landing, for he speaks entirely about what had transpired en route.
His valedictory continues through chapter 3. In 2 Nephi 4:12, the record
abruptly states that after Lehi had spoken those things to his household, ‘he
waxed old’ and died. My impression is that Lehi lived no more than a couple of
years in America and perhaps less than one. In that case his age at death could
have been as early as fifty-seven. Considering the arduous circumstances he
faced in the last dozen years of his life and especially the intimation in 1
Nephi 18:17-18 that he was viewed as being somewhat sickly, this seemingly
premature death is not really surprising.”[2]
In Nephi’s record, we have an account of the blessings Lehi
gave to Laman, Lemuel, the children of Laman and Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, Zoram,
Joseph, Jacob, and Sam. One name is
missing from the list – Nephi’s.
Why didn’t Nephi leave a record of the blessing he received
from Lehi? It’s possible Lehi didn’t
give Nephi a blessing. Evidence does not
support this explanation. Lehi gave all
his sons along with some of his grandchildren, his sons-in-law as well as a
Laban’s slave who was not a formal member of the family. (No doubt Zoram was accepted as a member of
the family.) If all these people
received a specific blessing, it doesn’t make sense that Nephi would not have
received a blessing since the record tells us that, based on Laman and Lemuel’s
wickedness, he would receive the first-born’s blessing.
In the book Understanding the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy
looks at the question, “Why did Nephi leave his blessing out of his
record?” While we don’t the actual
reason, Hardy speculates that Lehi charged Nephi with keeping the family
together. He did not want to see his
family separate into different groups.
As we will see, the family did separate shortly after Lehi’s death. Hardy suggests it’s Nephi’s failure to keep
the family together that kept him from recording his blessing.
Regardless of the reason, it is strange that Nephi would
ignore his blessing when making his second set of plates.
Little time passed before the problems between Nephi and
Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael became serious. We read that that they “were angry with
[Nephi] because of the admonitions of the Lord” (2 Nephi 4:13). Once again, the same group is angered by
Nephi preaching the word of the Lord and calling them to repentance.
Nephi did record his words, but they were recorded on the
other set of plates. The foundations for the separation of the family have been
laid.
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