This portion of travel for Lehi’s group must have been challenging, as it comprises the greater part of the eight-year journey but is less than half the distance they had traveled from Jerusalem to Nahom. In this part of the route, Lehi could not have paralleled a road taken by incense caravans, since most of the caravans returning from the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia continued south from the Nahom area to the ancient seaport of Qana, rather than turning east. Lehi’s family would have faced many difficulties in locating food and water and negotiating with the tribes east of Shabwah, the main staging area for caravans in the southern part of Arabia. Later in the Book of Mormon, Amaron and Alma write that the Lord saved Lehi and his family from their enemies (see Omni 1:6; Alma 9:10). Again, Joseph Smith would not have known details about the trails Lehi would have taken or the dangers and afflictions he and his family would have faced. (See Echoes, 88–92.)