Culture: This short verse contains considerable information about Nephite society. First, several years have passed since the discourse Jacob delivered with such finality. What was his ministry during these years? If my hypothesis is correct, he has had no official position during these years, but Sherem’s story contains hints of Jacob’s unofficial capacity in the waning years of his life.
The fact that Sherem comes “among the people of Nephi” tacitly acknowledges that he is not genealogically a Nephite or a citizen of the town of Nephi. He must ask to find Jacob, something that would be unusual had he been a resident in the city of Nephi. No matter how large the city of Nephi would have been at this point in history, it is unlikely that it had grown so large that major political and religious figures would be unknown.