It is also possible that the brass plates provided the more general image of Israel as sheep. Psalms 119:176, Isaiah 53:6, and Jeremiah 50:6 all describe Israel as straying sheep. Although sheep-herding is far distant from most modern readers of the Bible, it remains understandable. However, the understandability is related to the ability of our culture to produce written and/or visual images that reinforce the imagery. Those methods would have been unlikely for the Nephites.