Nephi declared that “Jeremiah … testified of the destruction of Jerusalem” (v. 20 above). Jeremiah prophesied just prior to Lehi’s party leaving Jerusalem, about 600 B.C. Therefore, they would have known of Jeremiah’s prophecies. The book of Jeremiah records many of his prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 1:13–16; 4:27–29; 5:14–20; 7:32–34; 8:1–22). The significance of Jeremiah’s prophecies being known and spoken of among the Nephites about six hundred years after they were given is twofold: first, that the Nephites came to their promised land just prior to the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecies; and second, how they knew that Jeremiah’s prophecies had been fulfilled. The second point needs further analysis.
The first way that the Nephites knew that Jeremiah’s prophecies had been fulfilled was through a vision given to father Lehi showing that Jerusalem had been destroyed (2 Nephi 1:4). Later, the righteous Nephites, in journeying north, discovered the people of Zarahemla (Omni 1:12–14). These people had left “Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon” just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem (Omni 1:15). Among these people was one of Zedekiah’s sons named Mulek (Helaman 8:21). Thus, the Nephites had a spiritual witness (vision) and a physical one that Jerusalem had been destroyed, as prophesied by Jeremiah.
The contribution of the above passage in Helaman verifies and clarifies a number of Bible prophecies concerning the Mulekites, a Book of Mormon people who lived in America after the time of Jerusalem’s destruction about 589 B.C. (Book of Mormon dating). The first reference to Mulek is made in Mosiah 25:2 regarding the people of Zarahemla “who was a descendant of Mulek, and those who came with him into the wilderness.” The next reference to Mulek is a comment by Mormon, identifying the land north being “called Mulek, which was after the son of Zedekiah” (Helaman 6:10). Nephi’s comment, cited previously, that all of Zedekiah’s sons were slain except Mulek (8:21), seems to contradict the Bible since both Jeremiah and the author of Kings states that all of Zedekiah’s sons were killed (Jeremiah 39:6; 2 Kings 25:6–7). However, there are two Bible prophecies that would sustain the idea that some of Zedekiah’s seed did escape the conquest of Babylon in 589 B.C. (Book of Mormon dating).
The Lord gave Ezekiel a parable concerning the king of Judah and his seed being taken into Babylon (Ezekiel 17:1–21). As an apparent addendum to this prophecy, the Lord said:
Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell (Ezekiel 17:22–23).
Elder Orson Pratt, who himself had a special gift of prophecy (see D&C 34:10), interpreted these verses as a prophecy concerning the Mulekites:
When Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon, the Lord took one of his sons, whose name was Mulok [sic.], with a company of those who would hearken unto His words, and brought them over the ocean, and planted them in America. This was done in fulfillment of the 22 and 23 verses of the seventeenth chapter of Ezekiel …By reading this chapter, it will be seen that the Jews were the “high cedar,” that Zedekiah the king was the “highest branch,” that the “tender one” cropped off from the top of his young twigs, was one of his sons, whom the Lord brought out and planted him and his company upon the choice land of America, which He had given unto a remnant of the tribe of Joseph for an inheritance, in fulfillment of the blessing of Jacob and Moses upon the head of that tribe.
The last phrase of the Ezekiel prophecy, “in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell,” (17:23) may be an allusion to their dwelling with the Nephites and Lamanites. The Nephites were branches of Joseph who were to “run over the wall …unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills [America]” (see Genesis 49:22–26).
Further evidence that the young son Mulek escaped from Jerusalem is found in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus:
… when Zedekiah was sensible of it, he took his wives and his children and his captains and friends, and with them fled out of the city, through the fortified ditch, and through the desert; and when certain of the deserters had informed the Babylonians of this, at break of day, they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook him not far from Jericho, and encompassed him about. But for those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, when they saw their enemies near them, they left him and dispersed themselves, some one way and some another, and every one resolved to save himself; so the enemy took Zedekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but a few, with his children and his wives, and brought him to the king.
This account by Josephus can be read as indicating that one of Zedekiah’s young sons could have escaped to America. Another evidence that Mulek was a son of Zedekiah is the name Mulek. The Hebrew letters, written without vowels (or points—as called in the Hebrew), “mem,” “lamet,” “koph,” whose equivalent in English is mlk, means king. The English equivalent that includes vowels is thus “mulek.”
There is another prophecy of the Mulekites in Isaiah, although it does not specifically say the remnant who escaped had the son of Zedekiah among them. In answer to King Hezekiah’s prayer, the Lord sent Isaiah to him to calm his concern about the threats of Assyria. In addition, an angel made a prediction concerning the Mulekites:
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant; and they that escape out of Jerusalem shall come up upon mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. [JST, Isaiah 37:31–32; emphasis added]
Since this prophecy is about a remnant of the house of Judah that escapes, it seems to be a prophecy of the Mulekites rather than one about the Nephites who were of Joseph. The prophecy states that they would come to Mount Zion, which was identified by the Prophet Joseph as “the whole of America is Zion itself from north to south, and is described by the Prophets” (TPJS, 362). Thus, through the book of Helaman we can verify Bible prophecies of the Mulekites, and clarify other biblical passages regarding the Mulekites.
A sixth characteristic of a prophet is shown in these verses from Helaman and the comments above. External evidences will sustain the prophet’s words. This evidence may not come for years afterwards, but it will come. Artifacts, archaeology, and historical records verify what prophets have said in both the Old and the New Testament. The Prophet Joseph Smith proclaimed: “The world will prove Joseph Smith a true prophet by circumstantial evidence” (TPJS, 267). That evidence comes as the Lord sees it is timely and necessary.
Father Lehi and his son Nephi testified of Christ. They knew that Christ was the Old Testament God, and gloried in his coming (Helaman 8:22–23).