Desert imagery is a vital and colorful facet of ancient Jewish writings, and related imagery is found throughout Nephi’s accounts in the Book of Mormon. Hugh Nibley explains that in Western civilization, we consider the widest roads to be the most reliable and safe, whereas in the desert these roads are considered the most dangerous. Nephi’s admonition to walk in the strait path and continue in it until the end of one’s earthly life is strikingly similar to apocryphal excerpts. For example, in late Egyptian antiquity (1000 to 300 b.c.) it was popularly taught that a man should be righteous and always remain on the “right road.” According to Nibley, this idea “had actually become a literary convention in Lehi’s day; and in his culture, it is very closely connected with the Israelite use of it.” The image of a “strait road” in the desert is but one instance of the desert imagery that appears abundantly in Nephi’s writings. (See Echoes, 482–483).