This is perfectly good English, although now archaic. It means, “he became exhausted,” “tried out.” (See Heb. 8:13)
He Died and was Buried. Lehi’s last act in mortality was to bless his posterity. And, let no one regard this as a mere formality. A father’s blessing by the power of the Priesthood, is a draft on the unlimited resources of heaven, which our Eternal Father has obligated himself to honor, according to the words of our Savior: “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 18:18) That is the value of a father’s, or a patriarchal, blessing.
Lehi died. Tenderly the angel of death pressed a kiss on the dimming eyes, and he fell asleep, surrounded by his devoted children and household.
Reader, pause a while at Lehi’s grave,
Honor here a hero, faithful, brave.
O‘er Arabia’s shifting, burning sand,
Irreantum’s turbulent expanse,
Where the windstorms howled and whirled in dance,
Led by faith and Liahona’s hand,
Lehi came to Joseph’s hallowed land.
’Midst sorrows and turmoil and strife
He gather’d no wealth, no renown;
He gave to his God all his life,
God gave him a heavenly crown
Death is sometimes spoken of as the separation of soul and body. It would be more correct to say, that the separation of the soul—or, rather, the spirit—and the body is one of the effects of death. Death itself, like life, is a mystery. The spirit clings, as long as possible, to the body, even when this is sick, or tortured, but when they are separated, the body must be disposed of. In the words of Abraham, at the death of Sarah: “Give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” (Gen. 23:4)
“What of friends that have gone beyond the veil—are they dead? No, they live, and they move in a more exalted sphere. Did they fight for the kingdom of God when here? Yes, they did. Are they battling for it now? Yes; and the time is approaching when the wicked nations have to be destroyed; and the time is near when every creature is to be heard saying, ’Honor and power and might and majesty and dominion be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever.’ We have got to bring this about, whether we do it in this world, or that which is to come.” (John Taylor, J. of D., vol. 5, p. 191)