Nephi acknowledges that the foreknowledge of God has dictated the keeping of the two records. He did not know the wise purpose of the Lord, but hindsight confirms that the Lord knew that the first 116 pages of Joseph Smith’s translations would be lost. He commandedNephi to keep two records, and inspired Mormon to include the small plates as he made an abridgment of Nephi’s large plates (see Words of Mormon 1:3–4). The Prophet Joseph tells it in his own words in the preface of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, published in 1830.