“Bows were symbols of political power. One thinks of Odysseus bending the bow to prove himself. An overlord would break the bow of a disobedient vassal to symbolically put the rebel in his place (see also Jeremiah 49:35; 51:56). That detail is significant in 1 Nephi 16. Nephi’s bow broke, and the bows of Laman and Lemuel lost their springs, but when Nephi fashioned a new bow, making him the only one in camp with a bow, his brothers soon accused Nephi of having political ambitions (see 1 Nephi 16:37–38)” (Hamblin, “Nephi’s Bows and Arrows,” 41).