Children in the Wilderness

Alma explained to his son Helaman one of the reasons that Lehi’s group took so long—eight years—to cross the Arabian desert. He taught, “They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey; Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions. And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a shadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual” (Alma 37:41-43). Because they were slothful—likely referring to Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael in particular—they were not guided in a direct route and they did not make good progress. It dawned on me yesterday that there is another obvious reason that they were so slow in their journey. After the death of Ishmael, as they started east, there were eight couples on the journey: Lehi and Sariah, the two sons of Ishmael each with their wives, and the five daughters of Ishmael with their husbands (Zoram, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi). We know that Lehi and Sariah had at least two children during their desert crossing, and Nephi’s later reference to “sisters” suggests to me that they also had two girls in that time period (2 Nephi 5:6). The other seven couples were all younger and very likely would have all had children during this part of their journey. Nephi alluded to this fact when he summarized, “Our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men.” Laman and Lemuel also alluded to this in a negative tone, “We have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death” (1 Nephi 17:2, 20). Nephi mentioned his “children” on the ship and after they arrived in the promised land Lehi addressed “the sons and the daughters of Laman” and “the sons and daughters of Lemuel,” meaning that Nephi had multiple children and Laman and Lemuel each had at least four children (1 Nephi 18:19, 2 Nephi 4:8). So, it is clear that there were a lot of children born during their journey.

                I have been trying to guess how large the group might have been. Typically, children would have been born about every two years, and so if we assume this average for each of the eight couples, that would mean that about 32 children would have been born in the wilderness! At that rate it means that about every three months a baby would have been born. Of course, we can’t know how close that number is to what actually happened, but whatever the exact count was it is no wonder that it took them a long time to cross the desert! I don’t believe it was very long after they arrived in the promised land that Lehi died and the two groups split. If we assume that it was about ten years since the initial departure and using the same average rate of children, we could guess that each of the younger couples had about five children by then. So, in Nephi’s group that left there would have been Nephi, Sam, and Zoram each with their wives and five children; Jacob, Joseph, and at least two otherwise unknown sisters; and possibly Sariah (we never learn when she died). His group would have then had about 25 people, and on the other hand we can guess that the other group had Laman and Lemuel and their wives each with their five children, the sons of Ishmael each with their wives and their five children plus any they already had at the beginning, or approximately 30 people. This was by this point a very large family, and surely this split broke up countless friendships among cousins who were not as divided as their parents were. Understanding that the group was likely this large highlights why it was so difficult for Nephi to finally make the split after a decade of trying to keep the family together in the gospel. He recounted, “And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me, that I, Nephi, should depart from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me…. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words” (2 Nephi 5:5-6). Interestingly, in that moment Nephi was doing the exact same thing that his father Lehi had done over a decade earlier: fleeing their homes in order to follow a revelation of God and save their lives from those who sought to kill them. And as before, they took with them the records of the scriptures and were preserved by the hand of the Lord.