In his dream, Lehi describes a river as being both near a tree and having its head a little way off. It would therefore seem to be a life-giving stream which starts in a valley and does not flow into the valley from some other location. Additionally, Nephi later tells us that this river was "a representation of the love of God" (1 Nephi 11:25) Yet the river is described differently in other parts of the dream narrative. Nephi writes "the water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water" (1 Nephi 15:26, 27). Also "the fountain of filthy water which thy father saw; yea even the river of which he spake; and the depths thereof are the depths of hell" (1 Nephi 12:16).
According to George Potter and Richard Wellington, there would seem to be some contradiction here. One might ask how the river can be both a representation of the love of God and at the same time the depths of hell? These two definitions would seem to be mutually exclusive. Our view is that the river was seen in two contrasting stages. The first stage is of a clear stream which gave life to the valley (Wadi Tayyib al-Ism), the second a raging flash flood which destroyed all before it sweeping everything into the depths of the Gulf of Aqaba.
The canyon at the end of wadi Tayyib al-Ism is the only outlet to the coast from the watershed of 105 square miles of mountains. If this dream took place after the date harvest (since Lehi saw dates or white fruit in his dream) and towards the beginning of the winter it would be an obvious concern to Lehi that any early rains could provide a flashflood from which there could be no escape for man nor beast alike, sweeping them toward the Gulf. The Gulf of Aqaba is referred to in the text as "the fountain of the Red Sea" (1 Nephi 2:9). The Gulf has a depth of 6,000 feet, the drop is precipitous--only a few feet away from the coral reef and shallow water, submerged cliff faces drop off hundreds of feet. [George Potter and Richard Wellington, Discovering the Lehi-Nephi Trail, pp. 60-61, 65]