Jacob’s farewell is poignantly melancholy. At his life’s end, he reflects, not on the triumphs of the new community, but on its sorrows and tribulations. As a man of two worlds, the old and the new, he sees his life passing away as if a dream. What a tremendous range of experiences he has spanned. The young Nephites have known no other life, but Jacob, though born after his parents left Jerusalem, cannot forget that they are outcasts from Jerusalem. He himself was “born in tribulation,” but he would have heard descriptions of their lost world—not their wealth in Jerusalem, but the culture of a city and the anchor of a temple. True, the Nephites have also built a temple, but it could not have had the symbolic significance of the Jerusalem temple.
Jacob’s life began in tribulation, and he fought tremendous battles to hold his people together in the Lord. On top of those internal battles, war with the Lamanites has imposed its own afflictions. Jacob may be excused if he views his life as “mourning out” his days.
Variant: The original and printer’s manuscripts have “in a wild wilderness.” The 1830 typesetter removed wild, probably because it appeared redundant. The 1981 edition did not restore the original reading, perhaps for the same reason.