Lehi’s vision of Jerusalem’s destruction (v. 4) was a spiritual witness confirming what the Spirit of the Lord had told him earlier, “that it should be destroyed” (1 Nephi 1:13). It also justified why “he should take his family and depart into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 2:2). Several generations later the Nephites received a physical witness when they met “the people of Zarahemla (who) came out of Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon” (Omni 1:15). Even hundreds of years later Nephi, the son of Helaman, uses this evidence against the wicked Nephites. “And now will you dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed? Will ye say that the sons of Zedekiah were not slain, all except it were Mulek? Yea, and do ye not behold that the seed of Zedekiah are with us, and they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem?” (Helaman 8:21). The Lord provides witnesses as they are needed, and the Spirit would verify that witness to them personally, giving them two witnesses. Thus the people were left without excuse.
Lehi also testified to his sons that where they had landed was a land “choice above all other lands” (v. 5). This is the first recording of Lehi calling it a promised land, although he certainly must have known and called it such earlier. It was recorded as the destiny given to Nephi by the Lord which he had “prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands” (1 Nephi 2:20). This was made known to Nephi in the valley of Lemuel a short time after they departed from Jerusalem. He “did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father” (1 Nephi 2:16). It is probable that the Lord was confirming what Lehi had told Nephi. Furthermore, he had been told of the land many times by an angel in the visions shown to him because of his “desire to behold the things which my father saw” (1 Nephi 11:3; 13:12, 30; 14:2).
Obtaining the promised land was recorded as their objective from the time of the Lord’s appearance to Nephi. Nephi was commanded by the Lord to build a ship, and to be “led towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 17:13–14). Lehi now discloses that the Lord God had “ covenanted with [him] should be a land for the inheritance … unto me, and to my children forever,” and to all others “who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord” (v. 5). There is no account of when this covenant was made with him, but the implication is that the vision of the destruction of Jerusalem and the covenant were made at the same time, and that it was after their arrival in the promised land. When the Savior visited the Nephites, he taught them that, as remnants of Joseph, “this is the land of your inheritance, and the Father hath given it unto you” (3 Nephi 15:12–13). Of course Lehi was from Manasseh, son of Joseph, and Ishmael was from Joseph’s other son, Ephraim (see commentary on 1 Nephi 7:3). The Father’s giving the land to Joseph’s remnant may have been referring to the covenant made to Lehi.