Up to the Land of Nephi

When Nephi and the other believers departed from Laman and Lemuel, they settled a place that was called Nephi. Hundreds of years later when most of the Nephites had become wicked, Mosiah led a small group of righteous people into the wilderness and discovered the land of Zarahemla. During most of the rest of the Book of Mormon this was the base of the Nephite people, and the Lamanites lived in the land of Nephi (a fact that can be confusing). There are several stories, though, which speak of Nephites going back to Nephi, and in these accounts the record speaks consistently of going up to that land. Amaleki wrote of “a certain number who went up into the wilderness to return to the land of Nephi” (Omni 1:27). When the people of Limhi were there occupying the land the Lamanites “went up to the land of Nephi to destroy the people of Limhi” (Mosiah 20:7). The sons of Mosiah desired of their father to “go up to the land of Nephi that they might preach the things which they had heard” and they “did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi” (Mosiah 28:1,5). When Mormon recorded their actual departure he wrote, “Thus they departed into the wilderness with their numbers which they had selected, to go up to the land of Nephi, to preach the word of God unto the Lamanites” (Alma 17:8). When Ammon reflected on their success he said, “We said unto our brethren in the land of Zarahemla, we go up to the land of Nephi, to preach unto our brethren, the Lamanites” (Alma 26:23). Alma rejoiced over their success saying, “My joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi” (Alma 29:14). And when Amalickiah and his group of traitors fled the Nephites, they “went up in the land of Nephi among the Lamanites, and did stir up the Lamanites to anger against the people of Nephi” (Alma 47:1). In all of these references the geography is clear: the land of Nephi was situated above the surrounded land, and to go there one always had to go up.

                Given these consistent references to the geography of the land of Nephi, I was surprised today to read this verse about Ammon and his group of 16: “And Ammon took three of his brethren, and their names were Amaleki, Helem, and Hem, and they went down into the land of Nephi.” Taken alone, this seems to contradict all of the other references because it suggests that they went down instead of up to the land of Nephi. But as I looked closer at the full story of this chapter it actually makes sense. King Mosiah “was desirous to know concerning the people who went up to dwell in the land of Lehi-Nephi, or in the city of Lehi-Nephi.” He and the rest of the people wanted to know what had happened to Zeniff’s group, so he “granted that sixteen of their strong men might go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi.” When the party left “they started to go up” but they “knew not the course they should travel in the wilderness to go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi.” All of these references at the beginning of this story are consistent with the rest of the Book of Mormon, confirming that it was indeed up to the land of Nephi from Zarahemla. After they had arrived in the general vicinity of Nephi and the people of Limhi, we read that “they came to a hill, which is north of the land of Shilom, and there they pitched their tents.” It was only after this—they were already in the general area and had climbed atop a hill—that Mormon wrote they “went down into the land of Nephi” (Mosiah 7:1-6). So their forty-day journey in general was one that went up to this land from Zarahemla, but the final stretch into the city where Limhi’s people were was down because they had come atop a nearby hill. Even in this small detail, Mormon and other Nephite writers were totally consistent as they described the important events that took place in the land of Nephi.