The high irony of this rebellion is that it followed so closely the miraculous salvation they experienced at their previous stop. Apparently, once their bellies were full and they had spent more tedious time on the road, their gratitude for their deliverance diminished, and they remembered only their distress at being exiled from Jerusalem.
While this time was certainly unhappy for Ishmael’s children, Laman and Lemuel also participated in the discontent. Naturally, they would sympathize with their wives’ grief and feel personal loss at Ishmael’s death, but sorrow cannot be the only reason. Nephi was also wed to a daughter of Ishmael. Rather, Laman’s and Lemuel’s willingness to mount opposition once again to Nephi—including explicit conspiracy to murder—is their own responsibility, clearly rooted in their own dissatisfactions and dissentions. That they considered patricide and fratricide as acceptable means of resolving their plight indicates the appalling depths to which they had sunk.
Redaction: Nephi is giving voice to Laman and Lemuel’s murderous intentions. While he may certainly have known of them, it is quite doubtful that Laman and Lemuel shared them openly with Nephi. We are witnessing a reconstruction of the events from Nephi’s point of view. We cannot be certain how objectively he reports these conversations of which he could not have had first-hand knowledge.