Nephi accepts this command, apparently without question, yet he must immediately have known that leaving the comparatively comfortable home they have managed to create in Bountiful after eight years of arduous travel will generate dispute.
How many people might the group number by this time? John L. Sorenson provides a possible answer:
Nephi says in 1 Nephi 17:1, “our women did bear children in the wilderness.” No numbers are included, nor are any exclusions mentioned (two of these births, Jacob and Joseph, have already been discussed). If we presume that all the younger married women bore children during the eight years, the median number would likely be two, given the rigors of the circumstances—some may have had but one, others three. During the two or more years in Bountiful while they were building the boat, there could have been an additional three born within the group.
Sorenson thus derives a possible total of sixteen born in the wilderness (two children apiece to the wives of Lehi, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Zoram, and Ishmael’s two sons), plus three born at Bountiful, for a total of nineteen children. He continues:
Were there servants? No mention is made of male or female servants, yet it is possible that there were some. At first glance, 1 Nephi 2:4 would seem to rule that out, since reference is made only to Lehi’s taking “his family.” Yet Near Eastern usage would not rule out including servants under that heading without specifically distinguishing them. Lehi’s “great wealth” would seem to have called for at least female servants in the household. Nephi’s hesitancy about even adding Zoram to their party would not apply in the case of family retainers, who would have known no other life than service to Lehi and Sariah and had no alternative place in society in the land of Jerusalem even if they dreamed of defecting. I do not consider it likely that there were such people along, but the door should not be shut on the possibility, for they might account for some genetic variety in the colony as well as providing additional hands for the construction of the ship when they reached Bountiful.