Narrative analysis: Lest we believe that all Nephi is doing is detailing history, we should note the return to the theme of Laman and Lemuel in this verse. We have been previously told that they had humbled themselves sufficient to begin work on the ship (1 Nephi 18:1). We are now told that at the end of the project they were even further impressed and humbled. This is not an idle statement, but an important condition to which the events of the rest of the chapter will be related. Nephi's purpose in writing is not to tell history, but to use history as a framework for his moral lesson, in this case the saga of the cycles of humility and disaffection of Laman and Lemuel.