If there is any people in the history of the world who have had as much light and knowledge as did the Nephites, then it must be the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since the Book of Mormon was designed for our day and Nephi has taught us that we should liken the scriptures to ourselves, we should read these five verses as if the Lord was speaking directly to us.
Hugh Nibley
"The Book of Mormon goes to great lengths to describe just what a wicked society looks like and how it operates, with enough examples to type it beyond question; and with clinical precision it describes the hysteria that leads to its end. It also tells us how to recognize a righteous society, usually presenting the two types to us in close proximity. With these two images firmly in mind we are told why this presentation is being given, for whose benefit, and why it is so singularly important. The authors do not ask us to make comparisons and see ourselves in the picture, because that would be futile: the wickeder the people are the more they balk at facing their real image and the more skillful they become in evading, altering, faking, and justifying. So the book does not tell us to make the comparison—it does it for us, frankly and brutally." (The Prophetic Book of Mormon, p. 508)