Redaction: One of the questions that is never asked of the book of Ether is why we have the parts that we do. Moroni told us in verses 3-4 that he is not giving us the entire story. He leaves out sections dealing with the creation and the story of Adam. We might assume that he begins with this story of Jared and his brother because that was the next in line, but that would be an insufficient reason. We could assume it is because there is the wonderful story of the faith of the brother of Jared, and certainly that is a powerful story. However, even with all of that, Moroni might have left out this earliest story of the Jaredites, or at least abbreviated the telling of it.
It is likely that we have this story precisely because it is such a direct parallel to the origin story of the Nephites. Both Mosiah and Moroni would certainly be impressed with the similarities in the stories of the founding fathers of these two peoples. They both begin in important cites-in-crisis in the Old World, and both come to the New World as a “promised land.” Since what we have is likely the translation by Mosiah, it would not be contrary to expectations that some of the language used to tell this story is actually due to the parallels that Mosiah would have seen. The story would have been the same, but in the way the story is told, the similarities would be accentuated. This could have happened either in Mosiah’s translation or in Moroni’s retelling.
In this verse we have some very interesting and specific parallels:
[and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go]: What was there about the confounding of peoples and tongues that required the Jaredites to be driven from the land? Jared may have seen the danger in remaining in that more than language might be confounded. Babel was, after all, in the process of building a temple to other gods. Jared might see the value in leaving so that they might worship as they knew they ought. However, there is nothing that we see in either this story or the story from the Bible that suggests that there was reason that Jared and his band should be driven from the land. There is, however, a good reason for the driving out if we see this as a parallel to the Nephite story, where there was more reason to seen the exodus from Jerusalem as forced by either the encroaching Babylonians, or by the events with Laban. The parallelism of begin driven out would appear to be a literary parallel more than a historical one.
[And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth?]: Certainly if they were to be driven out, the hope of going to a good place would be high on the list of options. However, once again this is so directly parallel to the Nephite foundational stories that the similarities may have been heightened in the telling (again either through Mosiah or Moroni, or both).
[And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance.]: This parallel is not only to the Nephites, but to all of Israel. God made a covenant with Israel that they would have a promised land. Both the Nephite and the Jaredite record emphasize the continued participation of the house of Israel in the covenant of the promised land, even when that land was not the same as for the rest of the House of Israel, and when the remnant of the House of Israel that was to occupy that promised land was significantly smaller than the main body of Israel.