Nephi records that when he and his brethren did not return on time from their trip to Jerusalem to recover the brass plates from Laban, their mother, Sariah, “had supposed that [they] had perished in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 5:2). Despite the life-threatening happenings that Nephi and his brethren had to endure at the hands of Laban, it is interesting to note here that it was the dangers of the wilderness that Sariah was keenly afraid of. George Potter notes that the land of Midian in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia is a wilderness second only in barrenness to the great Rub’al Khali, or Empty Quarter, of the central Arabian Peninsula. Hardly a blade of grass breaks up the monotony of the terrain. Temperatures average between 115o and 125o Fahrenheit during the summer months. During the springtime in Arabia, day time temperatures are over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Survival experts advise downed pilots in the desert to first find shelter from the heat, then look for water, and finally to seek food. The Arabian sun will kill a man within hours if he cannot find shade. [George Potter with Richard Wellington, Following the Words of Nephi: Part One: Discovering the Valley of Lemuel, Unpublished Manuscript, 1999, p. 71]
1 Nephi 5:2 She had supposed that we had perished in the wilderness ([Illustration]Northern border of Arabia, the red sands of the great Nafud desert and the barren plains of the former Midian region. [George Potter with Richard Wellington, Following the Words of Nephi: Part One: Discovering the Valley of Lemuel, Unpublished Manuscript, 1999, p. 10]
“She Had Supposed That We Had Perished in the Wilderness”
Facing the potential loss of all four of her sons, Sariah had “complained” against Lehi, for “she had supposed that [they] had perished in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 5:2). According to Camille Fronk, it was one thing for Sariah to leave a comfortable lifestyle, but quite another to have her most precious blessing torn from her. Children were the focus of life for women in ancient Israel (see Psalms 127:3; 128:3). Only in their roles as mothers did Israelite women receive honor and authority. “The [Israelite] woman’s primary and essential role within the family … accounts for her highest personal and social reward.” More specifically, being a mother of sons created a woman’s greatest source of joy and comfort. Sons were seen as a particular blessing not only because they could defend the family in the face of opposition, but because they promised a continuation of the family name. A reciprocal love was typical among the sons of these mothers. Charles A. Doughty, a 19th-century British explorer who made the hajj (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) by traveling by camel through some of the same deserts that Lehi’s family traveled, observed that among Bedouin women “the grown son has a tender regard toward his mother, … before the teeming love even of his fresh young wife” and could be depended on to welcome his mother as matron in his tent should something happen to her husband. This relationship may partially explain why Nephi spoke more of his mother than of his wife.
Such strong family ties made the tragedy of losing a son especially traumatic--almost insurmountably devastating if a mother like Sariah were to lose all of her sons at one time. Centuries after Sariah’s time, but within a similar desert cultural tradition, Doughty encountered a woman who attempted to offer him an armful of fresh produce while pleading, I have lost my children, one after [the] other, four sons, and for the last I besought my Lord that He would leave me this child, but he died also … and he was come almost to manly age. And there are times when this sorrow so taketh me, that I fare like a madwoman; but tell me, O stranger, hast thou no counsel in this case? And as for me I do that which thou seest,--ministering to the wants of others--in hope that my Lord, at the last, will have mercy upon me.
Coupled with this profound motherly love was Sariah’s knowledge of specific dangers awaiting her sons in Jerusalem. Many Jerusalem men holding positions of power had a vendetta against “the prophets” who vehemently warned against resistance to the Babylonians (see 1 Nephi 7:14-15). We can therefore understand some of Sariah’s fears when her sons did not return from Jerusalem in the time frame she anticipated. So again we ask, why did the Lord inspire Nephi to include this incident in his narrative? Obviously, Nephi’s intent was not to demean his mother, nor to lead readers to write her off as a faithless murmurer. It is noteworthy that Nephi was not personally present to witness Sariah’s fears, but he recorded her experience as among those “things which are pleasing unto God” (1 Nephi 6:5). [Camille Fronk, “Desert Epiphany: Sariah & the Women in 1 Nephi,” in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 9, Num. 2, 2000, FARMS, pp. 9-11, 80] [See the rest of the commentary on 1 Nephi 5:2]
Note* Does the word “complained” as it is applied to Sariah imply something different than the word “murmur” as it is applied to Laman and Lemuel? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]