Text: 2 Nephi 31 and 32 are separate chapters in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, where they are numbered chapters 13 and 14. These two chapters should be seen as a unit that Nephi intended to be separate from previous (and subsequent) chapters. I conjecture that they were sermons Nephi delivered on two different occasions that he simply included in the text, making slight textual alterations so that this section works as writing rather than oral discourse.
Narrative: Although Nephi is entering new information—and is probably returning to a work he may have considered finished—he nevertheless attempts to integrate this new text into the narrative by providing a connecting introduction. The connection is narrative, not thematic. Despite Nephi’s care in providing an adequate transition between sections, there is no connection between the subject of this chapter (and the next, although chapters 31 and 32 are clearly related) and the previous material. Nephi truly had finished his prophecies of his people’s future. Chapters 31 and 32 consist of material that, while related to material earlier in the text, does not flow from any of the immediate material on the plates.
Nephi’s reference to Jacob may be confusing on first reading, since he has already included one of Jacob’s sermons. He is simply announcing that this chapter is different from what he has written in the past—the “few things” that he has selected out of a lifetime of vivid events and important theological concepts. The reference to Jacob is not an introduction to a coming speech but a continuation of Nephi’s description of things he has already written (and upon which he will not be able to write further).