When an author writes a book, he tries to put the thesis statement clearly toward the beginning. First Nephi, Chapter One, is foundational. It establishes the foundational doctrine that the Lord speaks to His people through prophets. It is clear that, for Nephi, this doctrine must be understood upfront.
Nephi explained that in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, there came many prophets prophesying to the people that they must repent. Many prophets were called and acted as prophets at the same time. Lehi was not a lone voice crying in the wilderness like John the Baptist. Who were the prophets at this particular time? The Book of Mormon names a few of them—Zenos, Zenock and Nahum. We do not know exactly when those prophets lived, but maybe about this time. What prophets from this period of time are mentioned in the Bible Dictionary? If you look under "Chronology," you will see that Nahum prophesied in about 642 BC. In 640 BC, Huldah was preaching as a prophetess. In 627, in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (Jeremiah 1:1), Jeremiah began prophesying, and that was about the same time that Josiah found the Book of Deuteronomy and totally changed the direction of worship in Israel.
The changes that Josiah brought about were popular with some people. However, anytime you have a major reform of a civilization or a society, you are going to make some people very happy and other people very angry. As Josiah changed the way the old sacrificial system had worked, he put a lot of people out of business, so to speak. So, this was not a particularly popular reform in some circles. Some of those opposing Josiah’s reform were prophets who were speaking against the way things had been mishandled. Zephaniah was one of those. Then there was Urijah, who prophesied in 609. The chief prophet of this time, however, was Jeremiah and then there was, of course, Lehi, who was about the same age as Jeremiah. Nephi’s record makes special note of Jeremiah (1 Nephi 5:13; 7:14).
Obadiah’s ministry was right around 605. In 606, the prophet Daniel was carried captive into Babylon. If you consider Daniel’s age, you’ll see it was possible that Nephi and Daniel knew each other, being peers. In 598, Habakkuk began prophesying. Ezekiel, likely a contemporary of Laman and Lemuel, was taken captive into Babylon in 598 and began prophesying there. That was right about the time Lehi was leaving Jerusalem. It is possible that Ezekiel knew that a group of people from the branch of Joseph (Lehi’s family) had gone out into the wilderness. Lehi was not the only prophet to leave. The Narrative of Zosimus recalls a tradition about a group that followed Rachab into the wilderness.
There were indeed many prophets in Lehi’s day. We also have many prophets in our day—15, to be exact. We have prophets and apostles working together to lead and guide the children of God. Is there strength in numbers? There is, especially in crucial times. Does the Lord send a lot of prophets? If we listen to all of them, we can learn. In Lehi’s world, they did not have correlation committees, and they did not have ways of regulating the scriptures and clarifying the doctrine the way we do. But, if you have many prophets saying the same thing, that is something to pay attention to. The Lord gave fair warning to Israel—fair warning to the people in Jerusalem. "You must repent, and if you do not, you are going to be destroyed." Lehi was just one of many taking the same message to the streets. We can learn a lesson—not just about listening to the prophets, but also that the Lord will not abandon us.
Book of Mormon Central, "Who Were the ‘Many Prophets’ in Jerusalem During Lehi’s Time? (1 Nephi 1:4)," KnoWhy 441 (June 14, 2018).
Seely, David Rolph, and Jo Ann H. Seely. "Lehi and Jeremiah: Prophets, Priests, and Patriarchs." In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, edited by John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely and Jo Ann H. Seely, 357–380. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2004.
Seely, David Rolph. "Sacred History, Covenants, and the Messiah: The Religious Background of the World of Lehi." In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, edited by John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely and Jo Ann H. Seely, 381–420. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2004.