Lemuel was the second son of Lehi and Sariah. The record almost always pairs him with his older brother Laman: the two murmured against their father for leaving Jerusalem and their property behind, and against their younger brother Nephi (1 Nephi 2:11-12). While traveling near the Red Sea, Lehi named a valley after Lemuel, telling him to be “firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord” (1 Nephi 2:10).
When Lehi recounted his dream of the tree of life, he said Laman and Lemuel did not partake of the fruit, and he feared they would be cast off from the presence of the Lord (1 Nephi 8). Lemuel followed Laman in opposing the family’s errands. He hearkened to Laman and beat Nephi and Sam with a rod until an angel stopped them, asking why they smote their younger brother (1 Nephi 3:29-31). He was party to the plots against Nephi’s life, binding Nephi in the wilderness on the return from Jerusalem (1 Nephi 7:16) and joining Laman’s later scheme to kill both Lehi and Nephi (1 Nephi 16:37). After that scheme, the voice of the Lord chastened them in the wilderness, and they repented for a time (1 Nephi 16:39).
Before his death, Lehi blessed the sons and daughters of Lemuel, his second son, leaving them the same blessing he gave Laman’s children: that their seed would not be utterly destroyed but would be blessed in the end (2 Nephi 4:8-9). After Nephi separated from his brothers, those who would not hearken were cut off from the presence of the Lord and came under a curse, and Nephi’s people called them Lamanites (2 Nephi 5:20-21); Mormon records that a mark was set upon Laman and Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, and the Ishmaelitish women to set their seed apart from the Nephites’ (Alma 3:7-8). Jacob recorded that Lemuel’s descendants were called Lemuelites, but that he would group all who sought to destroy Nephi’s people under the single name Lamanites (Jacob 1:13-14).