After opening with a statement of praise and revealing how his soul cherishes the words of the scriptures, Nephi utters a heartbroken cry: He is a wretched man! But note what he says here. He doesn’t mention his father’s death as the wellspring of his anguish, though that would be a natural course given that Lehi has just passed away. Nor does he explicitly lament here that the inevitable is about to come to pass: the unrighteousness of Laman and Lemuel, bereft of their father’s staying hand, is about to divide the family.
Instead, Nephi’s struggles are internal. He’s upset with the way he is responding to the family’s demise. He confesses that he’s “easily” beset by sins and that he suffers from temptation. It’s interesting that Nephi—who comes across in other portions of the Book of Mormon as the unwaveringly righteous alpha son—records this moment of defenselessness. He is righteous, but he also struggles with very human feelings and temptations.