Nephi², the eldest son of Helaman² and elder brother of Lehi⁴, was a Nephite chief judge and prophet near the end of the reign of the judges. Helaman² named his two sons Nephi and Lehi after their forefathers (Helaman 3:21).
Helaman² died in the fifty-third year of the reign of the judges, and Nephi² took the judgment-seat, filling it with justice and equity (Helaman 3:37). In the fifty-eighth year the Lamanites took the land of Zarahemla and the lands as far as Bountiful (Helaman 4:5).
In that same year Nephi² gave up the judgment-seat to a man named Cezoram. Weary of the people’s iniquity, he took it upon himself to preach the word of God for the rest of his life, as did his brother Lehi⁴ (Helaman 5:1-4).
Nephi² and Lehi⁴ preached to the Lamanites, and eight thousand Lamanites in and around the land of Zarahemla were baptized (Helaman 5:18-19). They were later taken and cast into prison without food for many days; when their captors came to slay them, the two were encircled as if by fire and were not burned (Helaman 5:22-23). The miracle extended to all those present: the Lamanites and dissenting Nephites in the prison were likewise encircled by pillars of fire, filled with the Holy Ghost, and heard a voice declare peace; they then saw the heavens open and angels descend to minister to them (Helaman 5:43-48).
From a tower in his garden by the highway in Zarahemla, Nephi² preached repentance and named the murderer of the chief judge: the judge had been killed by his own brother, who sought the judgment-seat (Helaman 7:10; 8:27).
The Lord promised Nephi² that he would be made mighty in word and deed, gave him sealing power, and granted that all things would be done according to his word, since he would not ask anything contrary to God’s will (Helaman 10:4-7). Nephi² asked the Lord to send a famine rather than let the people be destroyed by the sword, that it might bring them to repentance (Helaman 11:4-5).
At the end of his ministry Nephi² gave charge of the brass plates and the sacred records to his eldest son, Nephi³, and departed out of the land of Zarahemla; where he went, no one knew (3 Nephi 1:2-3).