Narrative: Nephi is running through a list of some of the symbolic meanings of the dream that he has just learned from his vision. He does not refer directly to the vision, however. There is also very little new information in what he is saying from what he has already written. When we read the text as though it were a chronological history, then this set of explanations is simply an accurate depiction of what happened. However, we should not forget that Nephi is writing these events decades after they happened and that he may be writing some of them for the second time (the first time having been on the large plates). This particular record is created to be read, and Nephi has already devoted a great deal of space to explaining the symbols. Why does he repeat them here, even in this more abbreviated form?
The function of this unit is not to explain the symbols but to explain the relationship among the brothers. Nephi is writing after the desperate division in the family where Nephi and “all those who would go” with him (2 Ne. 5:6) fled because of a divine warning about these brothers’ murderous intent. Nephi has had to personally understand and justify events that have led to the fission of his father’s posterity into two antagonistic groups. There is enough feeling on the part of those who are with Nephi that they will refer to anyone “who seek[s] to destroy the people of Nephi” as Lamanite (Jacob 1:14). In a word, the division was not amicable. Tensions still run deep years after the events.
It is in this context that we should read Nephi’s record of contentions with his brothers. In each incident, Nephi asserts some form of divine mandate for his position. In the current case, the experience with the Spirit and the vision provides him with an ability to explain scriptures demonstrating that Nephi is in a superior position relative to God compared to Laman and Lemuel. When Nephi writes, he knows that his readers do not need another explanation of symbols that have already been explained in detail. What they need, apparently, is more information justifying Nephi’s leadership over a people separate from his brothers.