Considering the circumstances, Nephi’s speech is both surprisingly effective (his brothers accompany him to the walls) and surprisingly ineffective (he goes in alone). Did they draw back at the last minute? Did Nephi persuade them to go only by assuring them that they need not enter the city again? Did they refuse because Nephi, at that point, did not have a plan and they therefore had no way of appraising its chances of succeeding? Did Nephi foresee that one man by night would be less conspicuous and therefore more likely to succeed than a group of four, at least two of whom would probably be complaining? Regardless, it is Nephi alone who enters to carry out this latest mission. Perhaps they accompanied him with the understanding that their role would be confined to help him escape from Laban’s guards again or to help him in carrying the plates, taking turns, as they had to have considerable weight.
Variant: The original manuscript has “without the wall” instead of “themselves without the walls”. This same difference between the original singular and printed plural occurs again in 1 Nephi 4:24 and 1 Nephi 4:27. Skousen analyzed various texts and discovered that the singular occurs when “wall” is unmodified. If the phrase includes “of the city” or “of Jerusalem,” then the plural walls is used. This also holds true of the use of the word gate, where gate in the singular is used unless the phrase is “gates of. . .” which takes the plural. Skousen suggests that the three occurrences of walls noted should be returned to the original wall.