[People Form Groups]
The Days of King Zedekiah:
91 Well now, we have to get Lehi out of Jerusalem. With all these stories and all these other notes and things, I turn and read that first chapter of 1 Nephi, and it’s miraculous—the condensation, the prose, the simplicity, the directness. He has the four qualities that Matthew Arnold attributes to Homer. The Book of Mormon has them; I don’t know anything else that has them. If you were to be asked on a test, for example, “What is the significance of the Lachish Letters for the Book of Mormon? They are immensely important. They are contemporary records—first-hand records, not records that have come down to us. They are the original documents, and they name names. They don’t name Jeremiah. It’s interesting that Jeremiah is never named in the Bible except in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah’s time the person they were all consulting as a prophet was Huldah, a woman. She was the prophetess; it’s very interesting. Like Lehi, Jeremiah was an amateur prophet. You can see that he was engaged in business dealings and things like that. He moved around a lot, preaching as he went. The same thing happened with Lehi; it’s very clear there in the first chapter. But it [the Lachish record] mentions Uriah who was a friend to them both. It mentions some other people and what went on, and various places.
91,92 1 Nephi 1:4 They are leaving, and the situation is so close to the Book of Mormon. It’s very dramatic and very intense. This is quite clear in both documents. But here we have something with which we can check the Book of Mormon story step by step. So we go on: “The Lachish letters center on the activities of the prophets. They are causing grave concern to the government; they are subversives.” We read in 1 Nephi 1:4, “In that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed.” That was subversion; that would never do, you see. So the government was after them. Torczyner, the editor of these Lachish Letters, said, “It must certainly be admitted that there was more than one prophet at this time. There were prophets circulating around.” Israel usually has a chief prophet at a particular time, like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but Jeremiah wasn’t even the chief one at this time. Uriah was an important man. He had been preaching perhaps longer than Jeremiah had. As I said, the prophetess was Huldah. She was the center of attention if they wanted the big stuff. Torczyner says here,”The central figure, of course, was Jeremiah, but it is only by chance we know about him. He is not even mentioned in the book of Kings; it’s the Prophetess Huldah, an otherwise quite unknown figure, whom Josiah consults.” Well, that was back in Josiah’s day, but now we are down in the time of Zedekiah. We are told that Uriah’s religious influence had been great. Uriah prophesied, “according to all the words of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah 26:20). So he was spreading Jeremiah’s message. Lehi did the same thing, so this was the Jeremiah party, you might say. And they were not popular, remember. Nobody wanted them with all this doom and gloom. They were running from the police everywhere.
92 Question: You tell us that Jeremiah was a little-known prophet, and this prophetess was well known. When you say the word “prophet” to me, I think of the hierarchy in the Church that we have today. Was it like that at all back then? Answer: No, that has nothing to do with it. As Brigham Young said, “Prophecy is not an office; it’s a gift. Some people have it and some don’t.” We are told that anyone who has a testimony of Jesus Christ has the gift of prophecy. But you have no right prophesying for the Church. There are various people who have the gift very strongly. No president of the Church ever had it more strongly than Eliza R. Snow. She made some marvelous prophecies, but she didn’t speak to the world and to the Church. This is given as a special gift, like healing, etc. There are some interesting stories on that.
92,93 1 Nephi 1:5-18 Uriah was a prophet and had this particular gift. He went around and Jeremiah was authorizing him. You notice how Lehi took up the activity later on. Lachish Letter number six tells us, “The words of the prophets are dangerously undermining morale of both the military and the people. Behold, the words are not good, both to weaken the hands of the country and the city everywhere.” Jeremiah 38 says the very same thing, “For thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war [soldiers, YEDE ANSHE HA-MILHAMAH] that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people [KOL HA-CAM]” (Jeremiah 38:4). This is what we are told in the Book of Mormon, that many prophets came prophesying doom, and the people must repent. Nephi said that there were many prophets. “Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people” (1 Nephi 1:5). In the fifth verse already; things move fast in that first chapter. In reply to his prayer, he received a vision which sent him out to join the prophets. Nephi said, “My father ... went forth among the people, and began to prophesy” (verse 18). This was as a result of this vision. What happened? He wasn’t a prophet before, but then he joined the prophets. He went forth among the people. You notice that every mention of the prophets here says that they were discouraging the people—that they were spreading dissent (repentance) among the people. It worried the ruling party, of course; it made them look bad. Verse 18: “... and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard” (his vision). Well, he got into real trouble then, as you know. In 1 Nephi 7:14, Nephi tells us, “For behold, they have rejected the prophets, and Jeremiah have they cast into prison [this is not by revelation; he knows this by the news]. And they have sought to take away the life of my father, insomuch that they have driven him out of the land.” Such is the situation.
93 And we find Lehi doing the same thing [political opposition]. It’s very interesting here that “Uriah’s story is being told,” as Torczyner points out, “only as a parallel to Jeremiah’s not less dangerous position.” Uriah’s story is a parallel; they were both doing the same thing (this is where you get the characteristic repeated scenario, etc.). Well, that’s exactly what Lehi’s story is, a parallel to Jeremiah’s. That’s what his son said. Nephi said, “They put him into prison and cast my father out.” Like Uriah’s story, his is a parallel to Jeremiah’s “not less dangerous position.” So we can add Lehi to this as a thoroughly typical figure of the time. Then there’s the name yahu, etc.
93,94 You see groups working together (little circles). We read about clandestine flights from the city in both the Book of Mormon and here, involving friends and family (going back to talk with Laban, etc.). Nephi and his brethren go back to town to persuade Ishmael, a friend of the family who had a family of daughters, to come down and join them. Nephi gets Zoram, the servant of Laban to come. They go up to strike a deal with Laban who knew them. He knew the boys when they came there, and he knew they had this great wealth. Well, they brought it up and showed it to him. They found out in the plates that they were related to Laban. So we have this sort of aristocracy in the town, and this is where the trouble is. This is clearer in the book of Jeremiah than anywhere else. It was long believed that it was only a few of the chief families that were taken away into Babylon, We know today that it was very different. They took everybody except that relatively small group of poor people. Nephi and his brethren went back, and they began to split up right off. When they went on their first mission to get the brass plates, they split up. Later, they took sides in the family. Laman and Lemuel and two daughters of Ishmael wanted to go back and give up the whole operation. They said, “We are fools to leave Jerusalem.” Remember, he said, “The people of Jerusalem were a righteous people, for they kept the law of Moses.” Then Nephi said, “If the former inhabitants of this land had been righteous, do you think the Lord would have allowed our ancestors to move in here and drive them out? No, it was because they were unrighteous, and that’s exactly what’s happening today.” When they were going through Arab country there, he said, “Do you think if those people had been righteous, it would have happened?”
94 1 Nephi 17:22 It was the same thing that happened here. Here’s what they said in 1 Nephi 17:22: “And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord,... they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them.” They got so prejudiced that they even planned to murder their father if they got chance. They were especially disgruntled at having to defer to their father in a very interesting quality.. [Lehi] was a PIQQEAH, and that’s what they accused him of being, “visionary.” These are exactly the qualities that Lehi reverenced and treasured, and he had them himself.
96 The essence of tragedy is not the good guys against the bad guys; it’s not black against white at all. It’s the incompatibility of two good things.
96 The brothers [Laman and Lemuel] say, “We have to respect these people [in Jerusalem]; they are living the Law of Moses very strictly. They are going to church and all that sort of thing.” Nephi says, “That isn’t enough; that doesn’t count.” So what’s going to happen? Their father is visionary. It’s great to be visionary, but they are not going to follow him.
97 Lehi supported the anti-Egyptian party, and that’s a strange thing. It’s a strange thing also that the prophet Uriah was fleeing to Egypt, not to Babylonia. He had been supporting the Babylonian party and had been against the Egyptian policy of the government. Why should he flee to Egypt? Torczyner said, “That’s a paradox.” He can’t figure out what was going on. Why did Lehi’s people flee toward Egypt? [Brother Nibley gives no answer.]
98 1 Nephi 3:31; 1 Nephi 4:1 It’s interesting that we read in the Amarna Letters from the earlier time when Jerusalem was being besieged that the military governor commanded fifty men in the city for patrolling the streets, etc. and ten thousand men in the field. Well, that’s the very same thing you find in the Book of Mormon where the brothers say they don’t dare go back and face Laban: “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:31). Nephi replies, “Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?” (1 Nephi 4:1). It’s like the normal setup of a division, a brigade, or a platoon today which has so many men. It’s very stable and lasts for centuries.
99,100 1 Nephi 4:8-18 I might as well tell you the story about Nephi’s successful encounter with the drunk Laban and his deception of Laban’s servant to gain access to the treasure in the archives. Notice his night mission. He went where the Spirit led him. We see that Zoram, the servant, had been out with the elders by night, and he was scared stiff when he found out who Nephi was. Then Nephi found Laban lying drunk after the meeting. He was out there dead drunk in the streets, in his full ceremonial armor. Nephi wondered what he was supposed to do. Then he had a long debate with himself (we should mention that).
100,101 1 Nephi 4:36 Lehi’s son takes Laban’s servant with him “that the Jews might not know concerning our flight. . lest they pursue us and destroy us.” (1 Nephi 4:36). Remember, they tried to pursue them, but they lost them.
103,104 We’re told in the Book of Mormon that the Mulekites left Jerusalem eleven years after Lehi. That figures very closely, doesn’t it? The “company escaped from Jerusalem bearing with them the youngest son of Zedekiah, the only member of the family not put to death when Jerusalem was taken. From the descendants of these people in the New World, the Nephites learned that Jerusalem actually did fall as was prophesied.” Remember, the Mulekites figure in the Book of Mormon; they are more important than the Nephites actually. Zarahemla wasn’t a Nephite city at all; it was a Mulekite city. Remember, Mosiah was voted king when he came there because of his great ability, etc. But it was always a Mulekite city, and we are told that the Mulekites were far more numerous than the Nephites at all times. The two of them together weren’t half as numerous as the Lamanites. So we have some very interesting mixtures here. They were dealing with each other all the time, too. We tend so to oversimplify the Book of Mormon. “Will you dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed? Will ye say that the sons of Zedekiah were not slain, all except it were Mulek? Yea, and do ye not behold that the seed of Zedekiah are with us, and they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem?” Nowhere are we told that Mulek was the leader of the community. Why did they bear his name? There was a Mulek, and they were called the Mulekites. Because of his apparent youth this would be unlikely. “But as the sole survivor of the royal family, naturally he would be the most distinguished member of the troop, Mulek, the little king.” But that name is very interesting. They don’t call themselves the “king people”; they call themselves the “Mulekite people.” This would be Mulekites. That’s the way we do it—Mulaikum. These are the diminutives. The word is Mulek. The word for king is malik. You see the word malik all the time, and it means king. But mulayk means little king. It’s an affectionate term that means “our dear little king.” We have Melek and Melchites and Malakians and all sorts of people in the Book of Mormon, but only one group of Mulekites. That’s a diminutive, but it occurs very often. It means a king, a leader and that sort of thing. So the name tells us everything here. Mulek is not found anywhere in the Bible, but anybody who has had first-year Arabic knows that a diminutive takes the form/Mcay/. So Malek, the king, would be Mulayk or Mulek. And anyone who belongs to a society or is a follower is an IYYA—MULAYKIYYA. It would be translated in the Bible as Mulekite. So they called themselves Mulekites because they were the people with the little king, and they were proud of him. They don’t give him credit for being king or anything like that, but they call him “little king.”
105 Mormon 9:31 We are told that the Book of Mormon is meant for us, and we had better read it. “This comes to you, oh ye Gentiles, that ye may be wiser than we have been.” [paraphrased] So we’d better see what they were up to and what happened to them. Well, we know what happened to them. Now we are being told why. But these letters show how beautifully documented the Book of Mormon is. Read that first chapter. He says everything. It’s an abridgement, but it hits all the high points, touches all the bases, and gives us these character pictures. That’s the way it is.