The Sword of Laban

My sister referred me to an interesting recent podcast about the Book of Mormon. Brother Don Bradley shared his ideas about how the Nephite items that Joseph Smith received or saw along with the plates were all connected to the temple and temple worship. Those items were described by the Lord in this passage: “Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea” (Doctrine and Covenants 17:6). So they were promised to be able to see not just the plates but also the Liahona, the Urim and Thummin, the breastplate that the translators went in, and the sword of Laban. The Saints book describes when this promise was fulfilled: “Joseph, Oliver, and David returned to prayer, and soon an angel appeared in a brilliant light above them. He had the plates in his hands and turned them over one by one, showing the men the symbols engraved on each page. A table appeared beside him, and on it were ancient artifacts described in the Book of Mormon: the interpreters, the breastplate, a sword, and the miraculous compass that guided Nephi’s family from Jerusalem to the promised land.” How incredible it must have been for these witnesses to behold these ancient sacred artifacts.   

Perhaps the seemingly most out of place of those items is the sword of Laban, and in the podcast Brother Bradley suggested that there is a parallel between this sword and the sword of Goliath. Nephi slew his enemy, Laban, with Laban’s own sword, just as David slew his enemy, Goliath, with Goliath’s own sword. The Biblical account reads this way: “Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled” (1 Samuel 17:51). Similarly, Nephi’s account says this, “Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword. And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword” (1 Nephi 4:18-19). Both of them cut off the head of their enemy with the enemy’s sword. And in both cases, the sword was kept and passed on as something sacred. When David was fleeing from Saul, he found Ahimelech the priest at Nob where the sacred items were housed. David said to the priest, “And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” Ahimelech responded, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here” (1 Samuel 21:8-9). The sword of Laban was being held as a sacred object by the priest. Though we don’t have any further mention of the sword in the Biblical account, it likely was continued to be kept with the sacred items when David was done with it. Similarly, the sword of Laban was kept among the Nephites and passed down from generation to generation. We know that King Benjamin, hundreds of years after Nephi, “did stand against [the Lamanites]; and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban” (Words of Mormon 1:13). He then passed it on: “And moreover, [King Benjamin] also gave [Mosiah] charge concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness, which was prepared by the hand of the Lord that thereby they might be led, every one according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him” (Mosiah 1:16). Though the sword is not mentioned again, it was clearly preserved and likely passed on along with the plates for each generation. And perhaps to us it stands, as does the sword of Goliath, as a symbol that the Lord will preserve His righteous people who put their trust in Him.