2 Nephi 4:20-22

Brant Gardner

The God in whom Nephi has trusted has been the support through the times when he has felt like a wretched soul. Nephi presents the evidence that he has that Jehovah has supported him by reiterating aspects of his history that demonstrate the hand of God in his life.

He was supported through afflictions in the wilderness. Of course, this applies to the whole family, but this is personal. Nephi has personally felt God’s love.

When Nephi says that Jehovah has confounded his enemies, he is referring to Laman and Lemuel. Those two form the basis for the ancestral enemies that Near Eastern ethnogenetic stories typically describe. That they are the enemies is clear in that Nephi says that they did quake before him, and we know from incidents he recounted in 1 Nephi that his brothers did, at times, literally quake before him.

Book of Mormon Minute

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