When Nephi was on the top of the tower, he probably was not wearing his priestly robes, but rather sackcloth and ashes. As Nephi put on this visual performance, many of the people may have thought that this was a funeral, and that someone had died. Nephi wittingly responds, “Why will ye die?” I think Nephi was not just saying, “Why are you going to die?” (of course, all mortals will die), but more he is asking, “Why are you willfully acting in such a way that you are in effect willingly dying?” The question was a time-honored prophetic lament and warning (see Jeremiah 27:13; Ezekiel 18:31; 33:11; and Jacob 6:6). Nephi’s question about death also seems to foreshadow his revelation about the death of the chief judge.