Lehi continues his metaphorical reference to Sheol, which was a place where the dead would sleep. Thus, his sons are exhorted to “awake and rise from the dust.” This is a reference to the dead, even though the sons are not physically dead. Lehi uses the imagery of the sleep in Sheol to describe their spiritual state. If they are in the awful gulf, then they are essentially dead to God’s influence. Hence, they must awake and arise from the dust of that state of spiritual death.
This reference is made more poignant by Lehi’s declaration that he believes that he is on his deathbed. Thus, he is about to enter the physical state from which he desires his sons to escape the likened spiritual state. This is declared to be possible, because Lehi declares that Jehovah “hath redeemed my soul from hell.” As noted in the discussion of verse 13, Lehi is not dead, and this redemption must be from a spiritual hell, which Lehi has likened to a spiritual separation from God. In this context, it must mean that his sins are forgiven and thus he is redeemed from sin.
Having been redeemed from hell, Lehi desires that his sons similarly be redeemed, and he informs them that the path to this redemption is “to observe the statutes and the judgments of the Lord.”