Although Nephi begins a new story here, Orson Pratt made the chapter division a little later. This is the introduction to Nephi’s vision. The importance of that vision is clear, so Pratt set it off. Nevertheless, there was no chapter break after our Chapter 10, and Nephi considered what we have as 1 Nephi 10:17–22 as his beginning to that story.
When Nephi created his outline, he knew that right after discussing his father’s lesson on the coming Messiah and their involvement in scattering and gentiles, that he would discuss his own vision. As he began, he testified that his father “spake by the power of the Holy Ghost, which power he received by faith on the Son of God.” The mention of the Son of God triggered another of Nephi’s asides. He spoke of Lehi’s faith in the Son of God, and now cannot help but testify himself. Therefore, even though he opens with the idea that he was desirous to see and hear what his father had said, he launches into a discussion of Jehovah. That discussion is found in the next several verses—to the end of our modern Chapter 10.