Nephi’s example is, naturally, well known in association with Israel’s deliverance from bondage, but Yahweh performed several other miracles. Of all of the stories he could have chosen, Nephi selects one in which Yahweh killed the enemy. Nor does Nephi stop short of making the comparison between their task and the drowning of Pharaoh, for in verse 3 he indicates that they are “to destroy Laban, even as the Egyptians.”
Nephi may not have consciously planned to kill Laban; but if his speech to his brothers was inspired, then Yahweh was foreshadowing in words the course that Nephi would eventually take. If his speech was reconstructed, it may have told what he would have said had he foreknown the result of the meeting with Laban.
Literature: It is possible that, when Nephi exhorts “let us be strong,” he was using a popular phrase. David E. Bokovoy, a specialist in ancient Near Eastern/Judaic studies, notes:
Biblical scholar Michael Fishbane has noted that, judging “from a host of ancient Near Eastern and biblical sources, it is quite certain that phrases like ‘be strong’ or ‘do not fear’ originally served to exhort an individual to take courage in the face of a new and difficult task.” He has further shown that in the Old Testament the phrase ‘be strong’ was specifically used in military orations and exhortations.