Narrative analysis: Nephi writes historically, and his historical writing has frames rather than strict chronologies. It is not Nephi's purpose to provide the history is a chronological order, but rather to tell the history for his own purposes. Thus in the introduction to the journey eastward he notes that they traveled for much time, and suffered afflictions, and that children were born. All of those things are stories, but Nephi ignores them. He simply indicates that time passes.
Thus Nephi "frames" his history around the real story he is telling, which is one of spiritual development. The events, chronologies, and "historical" events which were the substance of everyday life become the structure upon which Nephi builds his true theme of spiritual survival and growth. Even before the narrative begins for the eastward journey, they gross historical events are quickly dismissed. We don't know until verse 4 that they have spent eight years in this travel.
Where Nephi has previously dealt in "space of days" as an interval in his narrative, now eight years pass in short verses, with little more important information than that they were healthy and had children.
Historical Information: In addition to being the burial place of Ishmael, Nahom also serves as an important marker in the journey that eventually leads to Bountiful. From Nahom, the party turns "nearly eastward."
The Astons find in their correspondence between the Book of Mormon Nahom and the identifiable Nehem the perfect explanation for the Lehite change in course:
"Probably the strongest evidence, however, that identifies Nahom (and therefore Lehi's easterly turning point) can be found in a study of the incense trade routes. The trade routes represent, o course, the available water sources, but they also must follow terrain suitable for camel caravans to use. Scholars still debate the question of how long camels have been used to transport cargo over great distances, but in any event, the method predated Lehi by many centuries. Top-heavy when loaded, the camel is best suited to level ground offering either a sand or soil footing rather than rocky or mountainous regions. As a consequence, the trade routes tended to follow the valleys and plateaus, usually avoiding higher ground. Constantly shifting sand dunes could add days of extra, unplanned travel, as loaded camels cannot traverse steep slopes. Since water holes do not move, the advent of modern mapping allows us to reconstruct these ancient desert highways with a fairly high degree of certainty. No one in 1830 could do so.
It is of the greatest interest to the student of the Book of Mormon to note that the major trunk of the trade route passed through the Jawf valley within a few miles of Nehem. And it is here - and nowhere else - that the trade route branched eastward toward the Hadhramaut coast and the ancient port of Qana, the modern Bir Ali, to which most of the incense was shipped. Some minor trade routes did branch off to the south, but the major route was to the east." (Aston and Aston. In the Footsteps of Lehi p. 22).
"If we take literally Nephi's statement that they traveled "nearly eastward" to Bountiful, the trade route is ruled out, for it soon veers in a pronounced southeast direction. Also, had Lehi taken the trade route to the coast via Shabwah, the few opportunities for then passing through the coastal mountain ranges would have led to locations too far south of Nahom to be referred to as "nearly eastward." Instead, Nephi's repeated emphasis on the hardships and difficulties of the journey are unmistakable hints confirming that a course almost due east from the Jawf was maintained. The direction took them somewhat north of the trade route, traveling first across the band of wasteland that lies between the shifting sand dunes of the southern edge of the vast "Empty quarter" and the smaller Saba'tayn desert, then onto a n extended area of plateau. Here they would have been moving in areas far from known routes.
From this time onward, the Lehite group traveled cautiously in a remote region, eating their meat raw as the smoke or light from fires would have invited bedouin attack. Travel through this region - the still almost totally isolated and forgotten northeast plateaus of modern Yemen - certainly occupied the most arduous part of their eight-year journey in the wilderness. The Liahona, which earlier had led them to the "more fertile parts," now likely functioned in directing them to scarcer water sources until Bountiful was reached. Water wells are almost nonexistent in this remote region, but huge standing pools of water sometimes last for months after rain has fallen." (Aston and Aston, p. 31-32).