Redaction: Nephi’s craftsmanship is obvious in these verses. The people are conversing with one another when they hear something they do not understand. Again they listen but still do not understand. The third time, after they have exerted considerable effort, they hear comprehensible words. This triple repetition is a literary technique, used earlier when Nephi said the destruction lasted three hours, even though he had no way of measuring that passage of time. He also asserted that the darkness lasted for three days, even though there was no way to tell the difference between day and night.
This triple repetition of the “small” voice is a dramatic contrast to the universally heard voice at the end of the destruction. After their world had fallen apart, after there were noises so tremendous that the people might have been partially deafened or had had ringing in their ears, and while enduring the thick and fearful darkness, the people heard the voice of Yahweh and, from his first words, understood him clearly.
Now they are quietly conversing and appear to be faithful. Yet they must wait three times, and then hear only when they “did open their ears to hear it.” Nephi is telling us that this occasion is another “three” that points to the Messiah. Nephi is also telling us that the people had to believe before they could have this manifestation.
Moroni later echoes this theme: “For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world” (Ether 12:7). Kent Brown uses this text to suggest that time was required to develop the faith Moroni mentions, while Tvedtnes comments that only “some” were required to manifest faith—and certainly some already had such faith.
I favor Brown’s reading for two reasons. The first is that I see Nephi shaping his narrative so that this event is as typological as it might be descriptive. The second is the Messiah’s call to repentance immediately after the destruction (3 Ne. 9:20–22, 10:4–7). Repentance is not necessary if only true believers survive, nor would the commandment to repent make much sense if they were not given time to repent.
Regardless of how this passage is used in the timing discussion, it is still important to recognize Nephi’s intentional construction in it. He has shaped this scene to introduce the more important event announced by that voice.