Most children fear conversations with their parents when they know that their parents are justly unhappy with them. The longer the conversation, the worse a child feels. Imagine, then, the feelings of the brother of Jared at the end of these three hours!
The only reason given for Yahweh’s displeasure is that the brother of Jared had “remembered not” to call upon Yahweh. On the face of it, it sounds as if the brother of Jared had forgotten to pray, but that seems unlikely. He had called upon Yahweh before and received prophetic answers. When he called on Yahweh at this point, he received a direct communication. It is doubtful that even the most spiritually attuned prophets would receive direct revelations during every prayer. Even if such a prophet had forgotten to offer a formal prayer, it seems certain that he would follow the admonition of Alma2: “Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you” (Alma 34:27).
Yahweh’s chastisement was probably not about prayer in general but rather because the brother of Jared had not offered a very specific prayer—one regarding the continuing of their journey. They had paused for four years. When Yahweh moves past chastisement to instruction, those instructions deal with continuing to the promised land.
Culture: It is doubtful that there was any device to measure time that might render not only hours, but a specific number of hours. Even if there were, we cannot imagine the brother of Jared paying attention to time during his time with Yahweh. The presence of “three hours” is more likely here for the number “3” than for the “hours.” Alonzo L. Gaskill, a Ph.D. in biblical studies and LDS Institute instructor, notes that “when the number [3] is used in scripture, it frequently serves to emphasize divine involvement, backing, or influence.” This is the context in which we should see it in this verse.
Geography: Nibley notes: “Whether the party moved east or west from the valley of Nimrod is not a major issue, though a number of things favor an eastern course. For one thing, there is the great length of the journey: ‘for this many years we have been in the wilderness’ (3:3).” Although this reference is accurate, the “many years” are the four years that the Jaredites were camped in Moriancumr (Ether 2:14). There is no indication that they were traveling during those years “in the wilderness” (Ether 2:7; see also 2:13–14 and accompanying commentary).
Joseph L. Allen argues for a Pacific crossing in Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, listing five reasons.
1. The movement of the colony of Jared was from the Great Tower (Babylon) northward to ‘that quarter where there never had man been’ (parts of Asia). This movement placed them in a position to cross the Pacific.
Allen makes an unlikely assumption: that the “quarter where there never had man been” was Asia. While there might have been regions that were uninhabited, certainly all of Asia was not uninhabited. I interpret the statement “quarter where there never had man been” as figurative, suggesting that God was sending the Jaredites away from urbanized civilization, not away from all human beings. Furthermore, the text gives no indication that they traveled anywhere after the first embarkation. They arrive at a site and stay there for four years, incurring God’s chastisement precisely because they had not been traveling to the promised land. The omission of travel between the two voyages makes it difficult to posit their traversing the Asian continent that would have been between them and the Pacific Ocean.
2. The Jaredites traveled 344 days on the ocean, which more closely approximates a Pacific crossing as opposed to an Atlantic crossing.
Allen doesn’t give the average time of a typical Pacific crossing, but it would also likely be less than 344 days. (See commentary accompanying Ether 6:11.) Complicating a Pacific crossing would have been the very difficulty (generally contrary currents) that Lehi’s family would have encountered. (See commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 18:20–22.) If God arranged favorable conditions for Lehi, he certainly could have done so for the Jaredites, but the window of their opportunity would have been similarly small. It seems unlikely that God would chastise the brother of Jared if God himself were delaying their travel until the right conditions developed (as I posit he did for the Lehite departure).
3. The writings of Ixtlilxochitl and modern histories of the Chinese proclaim an Asian settlement from the great tower.
Allen quotes Ixtlilxochitl, but his assertion about modern Chinese histories is completely unsupported and, in fact, is not unsupported by any Chinese history I have encountered. I hypothesize that Allen may have desired to marshal arguments for a Pacific crossing to locate a Book of Mormon people in Asia from whence the Americas derived their major prehistorical populations. Although the idea of using a native chronicler like Ixtlilxochitl has theoretical appeal, Ixtlilxochitl is a problematic source who was heavily influenced by his Spanish teachers. (See Ether, Part 1: Context, Chapter 2, “Chronology and Ether.”)
4. Ixtlilxochitl reports that the first settlers, who originated from the great tower, traveled to Mesoamerica from the west.
I have already discussed the unreliability of Ixtlilxochitl’s use of the “great tower” as a point of origin for Mesoamerican peoples. It is not part of the native tales in other authors. (See Ether, Part 1: Context, Chapter 2, “Chronology and Ether,” which discusses the connection between Ixtlilxochitl’s history and the “great tower.”) Ixtlilxochitl freely mixed biblical references with native mythology, evidence of heavy Christian influence.
5. The settlement patterns described in the Book of Ether correspond with the geographical and traditional patterns of Mesoamerica, indicating an initial settlement in the Oaxaca Valley and a subsequent migration to the Gulf of Mexico.
It is hard to know what settlement patterns Allen means. The Olmec homeland was on the Gulf Coast side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Oaxaca Valley is along the Pacific Coast, and was under the Olmec cultural umbrella, but was not the homeland. He does not explain why he misrepresents the Olmec homeland. Perhaps Allen is constructing a case for Izapa (a site on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where the “tree of life” stela was discovered) as being a Jaredite city. If so, this is chronologically out of place. Izapa is part of the Epi-Olmec civilization (the Late Formative, 600/500 B.C.–300 B.C.), or the time period following the demise of the Olmec (1500–600 B.C.).
None of these five points creates a strong reason for positing a Pacific crossing. Only one of the five is directly related to the description in the text (his first point), and it relies on a shaky interpretation concerning Asia.
The text clearly describes a first journey with barges. Then the Jaredites stop at Moriancumr for four years. They leave directly for the New World from that location. The only geography that fits that description requires travel across the Mediterranean with a stopping point at the juncture of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.