“Lehi Left His House and the Land of His Inheritance and His Gold and His Silver and His Precious Things”

Bryan Richards

This verse suggests how wealthy Lehi was. When the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, they specifically destroyed or took into captivity the wealthy and the princes. And he (Nebuchadnezzar) carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land (2 Kings 24:14). Although, many of the wealthy were preserved and taken captive, it was revealed to Lehi that had we remained in Jerusalem we should … have perished. (2 Nephi 1:4)

There is no indication that Lehi, Sariah, or Nephi had any problem leaving the riches of the world behind. Hugh Nibley records, "that a wealthy citizen of Jerusalem should leave the land of his inheritance at a moment's notice and with no more substantial incitement than a dream may seem at first blush highly improbable, to say the least. Yet Lehi had brooded long and anxiously over the fate of Jerusalem, praying 'with all his heart, in behalf of his people.' (1 Ne. 1:5) and when the dream came, he was prepared." (Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites, p. 52) The concept of leaving home and riches did bother Laman and Lemuel as recorded in verse 11.

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