Omni receives the sacred records from his father, Jarom, around 361 b.c., with the commission that they “be kept according to the commandments of my fathers” (Jarom 1:15). Omni complies with the task to “write somewhat upon these plates, to preserve our genealogy” (verse 1)—yet he does so with a unique confession: “But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done” (verse 2). Wicked or not, Omni is a defender of his people—“Wherefore, in my days, I would that ye should know that I fought much with the sword to preserve my people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of their enemies, the Lamanites” (verse 2)—and he faithfully guards and preserves the records for some forty-four years during a time of considerable turmoil and warfare. Around 317 b.c. he delegates the task of maintaining the records to his son Amaron.