It seems to me that if there are big problems with prostitution, involving whores and whoredoms, this is not likely to be someone’s sister or niece within close family tribes. It might well be that these whoredoms involved foreign women, and that they were bringing them in and using them as domestic servants or slaves. Under the Law of Moses, you could not have a member of the house of Israel as a slave, but you could have foreigners as slaves. Remember that Lehi’s people are all closely related at this point. Except perhaps for Zoram, they are all blood relatives. Even finding someone they could marry that wouldn’t result in an incestuous relationship under the laws of Leviticus would likely have presented problems. The rise of whoredoms makes a lot more sense if they had begun to have interactions with outsiders.
I recently read an article in the Deseret News about a study done in Holland. It showed that there is a direct correlation between power and promiscuity. Typically, the more power an individual has of any kind—whether it be corporate, political, or economic—and the more that individual ascends into the higher ranks of power, the more likely he or she is to be involved in some form of sexual infidelity. Power tends to get to people’s heads, and when they get power they think they are immune or can get away with things that are risky. Many of us could probably name celebrities or social elites who fit this pattern.
It is important that we warn people, especially our young people who have their whole lives ahead of them, about the temptations that come with power. On the other hand, children need to know we want them to succeed. We want them to be wealthy and prosperous. We want them to excel in business and so forth. But I think we need to talk more directly and say, "You’re going to go out into this world and face a lot of temptations. You should know that there is a direct correlation between power and immorality."
In every case of divorce that I personally know, the divorce was preceded by some other issue, such as seeking wealth or worldly acclaim. It may start with smaller things and then you get to the bigger stuff, because all of a sudden the spouse and the children can seem like a detriment to your getting ahead or putting yourself first. One of the reasons Jacob spoke in the temple, where everyone was present, was so everyone could be on guard and help each other in strengthening family relations.
Jacob used the word crime three times in this discourse. This is interesting because Jacob is the high priest. I would expect the high priest to use the word sin and that maybe a king or another political official would be more likely to use the word crime. This can probably be explained by the fact that under the Law of Moses, religious sins as opposed to civil laws were not distinguished in the way that we might think they are today. There was no separation of church and state in the ancient world. When a law is established by God, then to break it is just as much a crime under the law as it is a sin against God, which accounts for Jacob’s use of this word here.