The valley of Nimrod was a temporary stop, a place to prepare for the more difficult journey. It is comparable to the valley of Lemuel where the Lord prepared Lehi and his people to travel through the wilderness (see 1 Nephi 2:6–14). Just as the Lord spoke to the brother of Jared in the valley of Nimrod (Ether 2:4), he spoke to Nephi in the valley of Lemuel (see 1 Nephi 2:16–24). Evan as Jared and his friends collected things to take with them to the promised land, Lehi and his people took “seeds of every kind” with them (1 Nephi 8:1). The Nephites apparently did not need to take fowls, fish, and bees because the Jaredites had taken them before.
The Lord spoke to the brother of Jared, but was not seen by him. The Lord was obscured by a cloud, and from the cloud he led the Jaredites in a manner similar to Moses and the children of Israel who were led by a cloud (Ether 2:4–5, cp Exodus 13:20–21; 1 Corinthians 10:1–4). It is stated later that the Lord instructed them how to build the barges (Ether 2:6; see v. 16 below). However, their journey was not finished until they arrived at the land of promise (v. 7). For now, they were to continue to the great sea that divided the lands (v. 13 below).