Text: This verse provides important information about the provenance of the record Joseph Smith translated. First, Nephi created two sets of plates. Second, they covered two different time periods. Third, the second (later) account is the textual record we are reading.
The first record (the large plates of Nephi) is that described in 1 Nephi 18:25–19:1. The records in 1 Nephi 19:2 are the small plates of Nephi, even though Nephi himself calls them nothing more imaginative than “the plates of Nephi.” Nephi clarifies that, when he created the first set of plates, he did not know he would be creating a second set and therefore recounted their journey in greater detail than on the second set. Both sets were in Nephi’s possession, accounting for his confusion about why he should make a second record when the first was readily available.
The material in 1 Nephi 19:1–7 is remarkably parallel to a similar interruption of his text that Nephi made in 1 Nephi 9. The commentary on that chapter (following 1 Ne. 9:1) notes that it functions as a transition marker between Lehi’s story and Nephi’s story. As it appears in this chapter, it also serves as a transition, moving from story to prophecy. Similar to the ending of 2 Nephi, Nephi will present chapters of Isaiah (chapters 20 and 21, 1879–1981 editions), and then end with his vision of the future that uses the Isaiah texts as its foundation (chapter 22, 1879–1981 editions).