Jacob had the small plates for over 30 years, yet this is the only sermon he records. Why this one? Note what he addresses: pride, greed, social hierarchies, marriage inequality, and the sexual objectification and commodification of women. These are the issues Jacob believes will lead to the downfall of Nephite society and any society that fosters them.
1 after the death of Nephi, Nephi closes his record mourning the struggles of his people, “I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them” (2 Ne 33:2-3). Jacob resumes the record fulfilling his brother’s prayers by addressing the decline Nephi had witnessed and worried over on his deathbed. Jacob is an ideal successor.
2 responsibility…to magnify mine office…to rid my garments of your sins, see note on 1:19. Christ also “made himself to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21) and “laid on himself the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Within the Book of Mormon, Jacob seems to be the originator of the idea that the blood of another can stain one’s own garments unless one does all one can to make others accountable for their own sins… Jacob makes plain that as their spiritual leader he is implicated in their sins, even though he is not culpable for them, and that their sins cause him suffering, even though their “abominable” thoughts and actions do not target him in particular. In this regard Jacob is a true disciple of Christ, who also took upon him the sins of others.
Fatimeh & Salleh, The BofM For The Least of These
3 ye yourselves know that I have hitherto been diligent, when we’ve lived with integrity before a calling comes, our influence in that call will be greater. Jacob is no hypocrite, and because of it, he can use strong language to call the men to repentance.
I this day am weighed down with much more desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls, Jacob begins an earlier sermon (2 Ne 6:3) with the same words. He reminds me of Lehi, who, when he saw the sins of Jerusalem, was compelled to pray for and preach to the people (1 Ne 1:5). Nephi did the same (2 Ne 33:3-4). It is a quality of the prophets (Mosiah 28:3), and it comes with an unavoidable anxiety:
It may be impossible to truly labor in one’s community without feeling anxious. If you have the call to bring goodness and God into your community, it comes with worry and frustration, because you will see how you and your people are failing. Perhaps that is why Moses struck the rock—not that he worried about God, but that we worried about his people’s relationship with God.
Fatimeh & Salleh, The BofM For The Least of These
4-5 as yet… I can tell you concerning your thoughts, how that ye are beginning to labor in sin, These Nephite men have been outwardly obedient to the law, but they are not following God in their hearts (v6); and Jacob sees the writing on the wall. With prophetic seership, he warns them before it’s too late to repent.
He is thus going to talk about sin of thought and intent, the beginning states of a corrupt heart. These people are beginning to labor in sin—not necessarily because of what they are doing but because of how their thoughts are altering their hearts. Nevertheless, it is also unlikely that no one had acted upon these thoughts. The most likely scenario has a limited number of men who have achieved some economic separation from the rest of society and created social divisions. What is “beginning” in the Nephite thought is the acceptance of the hierarchical society rather than the Nephite egalitarian ideal.
Brant Gardner, Second Witness
Claiming knowledge of someone’s interior life is a serious responsibility. It’s a power that can easily be abused, but Jacob seems to understand this, which may have been the reason for is initial reluctance and why he says he had to first get his injunction from the Lord (1:17). We should love Jacob for this.
6-7, 9 it grieveth/burdeneth my soul and causeth me to shrink with shame before the presence of my maker…that I must use so much boldness…to admonish you, see 2 Ne 9:48. this is neither hyperbole nor feigned piety. This is Jacob the meek, whose gentility is as authentic to his character as Nephi’s boldness was to his.
7 before your wives and your children, many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God, which thing is pleasing unto God, Jacob praises the women who have tender feelings. He rightly sees this not as weakness but strength.
In contradiction to those who say that words are harmless, Jacob implies otherwise. Not only can words harm, but there is also nothing wrong with being sensitive to them. In fact, he praises the women for being “tender” (v. 7). While being strong and slow to take offense is good, we also need to remember that there is merit in someone who can be wounded simply by words. Jacob knows that words can be daggers, especially to someone already hurt and vulnerable.
Fatimeh & Salleh, The BofM For The Least of These
8 the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul, “wound” occurs six times in these verses. Jacob is the only person in the entire canon who teaches that souls, like bodies, can be wounded.
9-10 enlarge the wounds…of the pure in heart, and the broken heart, only Jacob and Jesus (in the Sermon on the Mount) use the phrase “pure in heart.” As always, Jacob is concerned with how the sins of some (the men in this case) affect the innocence of others (their wives and children). Why does Jacob not just send the women and children away? Probably for accountability. By rebuking the men with their families present, Jacob ensures they stay accountable.
The women must sit through painful words, but Jacob wields his power to bring them some authority and justice. That is a radical action, given the hierarchy and patriarchy of the Nephite culture. Jacob is willing to shame the men in front of the women and children, an action that disrupts the power structure. There is a subtext to his call for repentance, one in which people with more social power are being held accountable to those with less.
Fatimeh & Salleh, The BofM For The Least of These
11 plainness of the word of God, he is not about to mince words in his sermon. He will show exactly how the actions of the priveleged (the men) affect those with less power (the women and children). There is no boys club with Jacob. In sum:
Jacob states early in his preaching that his identity as teacher necessitates showing the Nephites the consequences of their sin (2 Ne. 9:48). In the words that he personally records, we see that the consequences of sin stretch far beyond the individual into every aspect of society. Jacob views sin as a social and societal phenomenon, rather than an individual one, a perspective he gained through his negative life experiences. Although Jacob is commissioned by Nephi to speak of the sacred and spiritual, his primary focus is on the way that Nephite society functions (or rather, dysfunctions) on the ground. Refusing to sever the mundane from the celestial, Jacob assesses Nephite spirituality according to tangible earthly categories, including the division of wealth, the relationship between religious outsiders and insiders, and the harmony of family life.
Fatimeh & Salleh, The BofM For The Least of These
Jacob 2:12-21 Wealth & Pride
In summing up v12-21, Jacob says, “And now I make an end of speaking unto you concerning this pride,” (v22) and yet what he addresses is actually wealth. Pride was the sin, but wealth was the medium because of how it influenced them, “because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren…you have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts…for ye supposed that ye are better than they…” (v13, 20) This is what deeply disturbs Jacob—the sense of inequality infiltrating Nephite culture.
12 my brethren, at certain times in the scriptures, “brethren” means everyone, including women. In other cases, such as in verse 12, “brethren” appears to refer literally to just the men.
search for gold, silver…ores, the problem is as much about seeking as it is possessing. In other words, some may possess them, and some may not but still seek them, which can be just as problematic. In the binary of scripture, we cannot seek two things—either we are building the kingdom (Jac 2:17-19; 3 Ne 13:22-24, 33; D&C 6:7; Jn 1:38) with an eye single to God’s glory (that is, we are seeking the good and welfare of others), or we are seeking mammon (for our own fame, fortune, or glory). What am I really seeking?
in the which, this land…doth abound plentifully, ore is not valuable until refined. In Mesoamerica, carved and polished greenstone beads, red spiny oyster shell, and especially blue-green jade (“the color of fertility and the essence of life itself”) were far more valuable than gold and silver. The combination of symbolism and beauty of the worked product created the highest value. So how did finding undervalued and abundant ore lead to social inequality? One possibility is that Nephi passed on his knowledge of metalworking (1 Ne. 17:9–11). Thus, artisans in the city of Nephi perhaps were better able than those of other communities to extract and refine metals from the precious ore. Moreover, about this time, trade begins to proliferate among the Maya and Olmec. Hence the missing piece in Jacob’s discourse is the acquisition of wealth through trade of the jewelry and other goods made from exotic raw materials. The wealth occurs not because of the possession of unworked and undervalued ore, but because the ore could be worked into exotic goods that could be exchanged with other communities (see Gardner Second Witness)
13 the hand of providence hath smiled upon you, odd mixed metaphors, but both occurred regularly in the 18th–19th century according to historian Grant Hardy. The point of course is that just because God gives us something does not mean we can do whatever we want with it. It is possible to exploit the blessings of God.
There is a delicate line to walk between being grateful to God for what you have and claiming that God gave you those things because you are special. It is the deadly element of pride that creates the caustic belief of entitlement to blessings. It is pride’s ability to turn the most beautiful things into toxic things. Pride allows us to weaponize the providence of God.
Fatimeh & Sallah, The BofM: For the Least of These
you have obtained many riches, it’s important to note that Jacob will use the word riches in different ways. Sometimes it refers to wealth, but at other times like in this verse or v19, it may refer to other kinds of riches, summed up beautifully by the Lord in D&C 11:7,“Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.” Nephi earlier said that the people were living after the manner of happiness (2 Ne 5:27), suggesting that they must have had substance sufficient for their needs, but that they also thrived socially, spiritually, and in other ways. As those who have had material abundance know, there are riches more valuable and more rare.
wear stiff necks and high heads, great visual. Why do we do this?
because of the costliness of your apparel, the expression ‘costly apparel’ occurs 14 times in the Book of Mormon, and it fits Mesoamerican culture perfectly. Mesoamerican elite proclaimed their wealth of exotic trade goods by wearing these currencies as jewelry and clothing to display the wealth and enterprise of their families—precisely Jacob’s complaint about some of his people. This visual display of wealth highlighted differences among individual access to the exotic trade goods and led to the social inequality that lies behind Jacob’s condemnation.
In the Book of Mormon, the unstated contact with other communities is obvious in both the economic descriptions and the obvious importation of foreign ideas along with the foreign goods. Costly apparel becomes, in the Book of Mormon, a marker that the Nephites are adopting the culture and values of their Mesoamerican neighbors, including social stratification and status. In the Mesoamerican world around the Nephites, social class was maintained by visually displaying one’s wealth and by the leisure of elites who did not need to labor with their own hands for food. When these traits begin to appear in Nephite society, the prophets condemn them.
Brant Gardner, Second Witness
“Wealth became the end in life rather than a means to the accomplishment of good. Whenever the acquisition of ‘things’ became more important than people, then it was only a matter of time before class distinctions, caste systems, and the persecution of the poor followed…Why should we labor this unpleasant point? Because the Book of Mormon labors it, for our special benefit. Wealth is a jealous master who will not be served half-heartedly and will suffer no rival—not even God…Along with this, of course, everyone dresses in the height of fashion, the main point being always that the proper clothes are expensive…[and] the more important wealth is, the less important it is how one gets it.”
Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah
persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they, how do we do this? It’s not always obvious. We may treat them badly of course, but we also may just refrain from giving, consider them lazy and less in some way, or stay away and leave them isolated. These are also persecutions.
14 his judgement must speedily come unto you, indeed this is the very sin that leads the Nephite nation to destruction. And so we don’t miss how consequential this is, and how I am not using hyberbole by any stretch, here is what Mormon wrote about the beginning of the end of the Nephites in 4 Nephi:
24 And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world.
25 And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them.
26 And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ.
Do you see why Jacob is so fierce about this?
15 pierce you…smite you to the dust, I think what Jacob wants his people to feel is what Moses felt after leaving the presence of the Lord, “Now I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.” King Benjamin also wanted his people to grasp “a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state this.” Where pride ends, humility and equality begin, and where those are, love abounds. Compare v21.
16 let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls, their souls were being cankered, their tenderness and love for each other was turning to a disregard and even hatred of their own flesh!
17 Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you, not because we view ourselves as magnanimous but because we simply see all others as equally deserving of the same material goods that we possess. This verse and the next constitute the beautiful antidote to pride—building intimate, loving relationships with our fellowmen and with God. Treat everyone as family. Love them more than your stuff. Give instead of acquire. The phrase “familiar with all and free with your substance” is both captivating and liberating—the golden rule applied to money. See D&C 49:20; 104:17-18; Mt 22:39; 3 Ne 14:12; 104:18; Lk 16:23.
Jacob repeats that it is not wealth, but wealth’s social divisiveness that is the sin—not accumulation, but the presumption of superiority on the basis of accumulation. This sin appears early in Nephite history but recurs with devastating regularity. Jacob’s solution to the problem of wealth is egalitarian: its distribution where needed. The wealthy may avoid the sin attached to wealth by both generosity and not considering themselves superior because of the wealth. They manifest humility by materially assisting the less fortunate.
Brant Gardner, Second Witness
Every part of this is important. First, be familiar with all people. Look around you and see what folks need. Be familiar with the need. This is not a blind gift of merely writing a check; a person needs to be in community to know the needs around them. This is a call to relationship with those around us in order to know how to give of our substance. Be familiar with all people, without discrimination or limits. Second, the text calls us to take the thing that we seek and to bestow it on others. The gospel is not natural—it asks us to do things counter to what we think or expect. We find God by taking all the things that we want, that which we strive for, and giving them up. Our own freedom comes when others are rich like ourselves. This is part and parcel of liberation theology: we are not truly free, we cannot find salvation, while others are oppressed.
Fatimeh & Sallah, The BofM: For the Least of These
18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God, often used as an excuse by those who seek riches, “I have sought God, now I’ll seek my riches.” Hmm, that does not seem to align with Jacob’s message. In fact, those who seek and find God lose their desire for riches, supplanted by their desire to love and bless humankind.
19 after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, naturally, because one who hopes in Christ has entered into God’s rest, walks in the presence of his Spirit, and lives abundantly. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Incidentally, the phrase “hope in Christ” is used only one other time in scripture (1 Cor 15:19, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”) and is thus associated with the resurrection.
ye will seek them for the intent to do good, also used as an excuse by many who seek wealth. “I am only seeking them to do good.” But if doing good was truly a higher ideal for us than having wealth, we would likely find that there are infinite ways of doing good to others that have little to do with wealth. The problem is not the wealth, per se, but the seeking of it. Those who live this injunction about doing good tend to be those who did not seek wealth, but truly sought to do good, even if that good was simply to succeed in an area of life that she or he enjoyed, from a businesswoman to a professional to an athlete. Seeking to succeed need not corrupt; but seeking wealth, especially at the expense of others, does tend to corrupt. I just have to include these classic works from Hugh Nibley,
This is a favorite passage. Latter-day Saints love this, because this gives you a hand. This frees you up to seek for riches all you want to: “But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.” [People say,] “Well, I’ve gone on my mission that takes care of that; now I can seek for riches.” I’ve heard that plenty of times. It’s idealistic at first but not after. “And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them [you’re not supposed to seek them, but if you insist on doing it you can seek them under one condition]; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good…he says if you must seek [for riches] this is the way you do it. It’s a very interesting thing here. As I said, this is a favorite. Notice he says it shall be “for the intent to do good.” A person might say, “Yes, I intend when I get my second million to do that”…So they like that passage, “with the intent to do good.” [They say], “I’ll seek riches but I intend to do good with it, so that’s all right. Maybe I won’t live that long, but I have a good intention.” That’s a favorite…
It’s like raising money for charity. A recent piece came out in the Wall Street Journal that showed those who contribute to the poor. Over ninety percent are [those with] middle and lower-middle class incomes. They are the ones who contribute. The rich contribute almost nothing at all. Once in a while it will be a library or a gymnasium because it’s a monument to his name. If I’ve made a lot of “dough” and the time comes for me to “cash in,” I can’t take it with me. Is my life wasted? No, not if it will be remembered forever in the John Doe Library. So that’s the only gift you are going to get out of them. This article is a very interesting one, incidentally. It’s surprising how very little the rich do give to the poor. That’s why they are rich, after all. We have Nibley Park in Salt Lake City, because my grandfather liked to play golf. We have Nibley Park in Glendale, which my father gave to the city. All the oak trees have died there, withered by smog in southern California. They rob with one hand and give with the other; there are plenty of sharp deals, believe me! This is talking about those people, so I’m justified in talking about them…
Recently I wrote a letter to a very dear friend of mine, an exceedingly wealthy man in Arizona who has made fortunes and has given every cent of it away, time and again, just as Brigham Young did. He has a marvelous knack for accumulating stuff, but he has never kept it for himself. He is now right down to nothing again and feeling very happy, as if greatly relieved of all sorts of burdens. The things that he has given away are fabulous. There are such people; it can be done.
Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion
to clothe the naked, physically, or in a symbolic sense, we offer the Atonement, providing a ‘cloak’ for sin (see JST Mt 3:34 in appendix), as the Lord did for Adam and Eve.
and to feed the hungry, in Jacob’s village, the “hungry” would most likely be itinerant outsiders, as one’s kin would feed the hungry within the village. But we can also feed others in the spiritual sense, to those in famine for the word of God, as in Amos 8:11-13, a famine “not of bread nor water but of hearing the word of the Lord.” A “feast of fat things,” the “things of the spirit,” unto the “filling of their souls” (3 Ne 20:8-9).
and to liberate the captive, physically, this is probably a reference to how the Classic Maya took captives, and Jacob assumes that ransom is an option for captured Nephites. Spiritually, we can help liberate others from the bondage of sin, from the grasp of death and hell, from the chains of the devil (2 Ne 28:22). See Isaiah 58:6-7 as the same injunction is given with the law of the fast.
and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted, Jacob probably also meant nursing care, since medicine was certainly not advanced. Spiritually, we can provide the salve of the truths of the gospel, the shoulder of a friend and brother, the hope of salvation.
20 what say ye of it?, did Jacob pause for a response? He likely discerned that he had struck a chord—he could see it in their eyes—so he paused to let it all sink in. Likely he hopes for self-examination.
21 such things are abominable, Jacob uses this word 8x in this chapter. God abhors whatever means we devise to excuse ourselves from our obligations to every other individual. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes.
What is labeled by Jacob as “abominable” is not specifically the state of having riches or even the action of seeking after them. What he emphasizes as problematic is imposing human standards of worth and ascribing to riches a sign of divine favor and superior standing. Mistakenly viewing riches as indicative of divine approbation amounts to a form of self-deception that justifies withholding material goods from those who have not. In order to stay in right relation with God, one must retain an understanding of one’s own nothingness and equality with every other human being regardless of the wealth one has amassed; in order to stay in right relation with all human beings, one must consecrate one’s material goods so that the inherent equality of humanity is reflected in everyone’s material lives, regardless of who “earned” what.5 One must empty oneself of a false sense of self-sufficiency to see that one has been provided for by God (verse 13), who has done so with the expectation that such provisions are to be shared indiscriminately and on the basis of need rather than merit. By divesting ourselves of illusions about merit, either with regard to ourselves or others, we free ourselves to pursue our God-given injunction to care for creation. Unhindered by false notions of entitlement, we can collaboratively create a society that works to meet everyone’s needs through humble human effort.
Diedre Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction
the one being is as precious in his sight as the other, the Isaiah sections Nephi quoted earlier include condemnations of the powerful who take advantage of the weak (eg 2 Ne. 15/Isa. 5). Jacob wants to make equality a reality, but this division on the basis of wealth threatens that fundamental theological equality. Each of us should ask ourselves how we yet fail to grasp this truth.
all flesh is of the dust, Although Lehi describes the creation of Adam and Eve, it is Jacob who articulates the prescriptive implications of God’s having created them out of dust, teaching both that human beings are all equally undeserving of the status and riches they arbitrarily confer on themselves and that human beings are all equally infinitely precious to their Creator. Later prophets, including Benjamin, Amulek, and Helaman, develop these themes, but Jacob was the first.
Jacob teaches that love is not an unruly, uncontrolled, or elusive feeling; instead, it is the result of decision. On Jacob’s account, every sin in Nephite society results from the failure to see all human beings as equals. The prevention of sin, therefore, requires one to make a mental commitment, to view all others as equals and to give them their due. Loving one’s neighbor as oneself begins with seeing one’s neighbor as bearing the same essential value as oneself and as deserving of the same treatment. This viewpoint does not come about as a result of anything the neighbor does, says, or demonstrates about herself or her worthiness. Instead, it comes about as a choice to see the neighbor in a loving way in all circumstances—no matter how the neighbor may change or seem to change. Love is a just determinant for salvation precisely because it is a matter of agency.
Diedre Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction
Jacob 2:22-35 Sexual Agency
Wealth and polygamy went hand in hand. Polygamy is expensive, therefore wealth is often necessary to support plural wives. In turn, plural wives and more children produce more wealth, all to the end of satisfying the pride of the Nephite men (see notes below).
22 grosser crime, greater crime. What is it? It’s not sexual sin, as we might suppose; but a careful reading of Jacob makes it clear that the greater sins are (1) treating women as property and objects of gratification, and (2) manipulating scripture to excuse ones own sinful behavior.
Jacob inveighs against their misdeeds, which involve sexual sin and, worse, objectifying and instrumentalizing other human beings. The Nephite men view women as commodities that exist only to be used by men, not as persons whose desires, needs, and boundaries deserve equal respect with theirs. Of utmost importance to Jacob is addressing the Nephites’ unequal and abusive treatment of women, which is their most serious sin and has caused immense suffering and the decline of their society.
Diedre Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction
The gravity of misusing scripture for our own selfish purposes is perhaps underrated. It is also likely more common that we realize. The common theme throughout this chapter is how people take God’s blessings and turn them against others. In these verses, those blessings take the form of land and scripture, but the warning is universal. Jacob condemns the people for asking God to back their evil as they use scripture to justify themselves. His role as the prophet is to correct the mishandling and abuse of text.
Fatimeh & Sallah, The BofM: For the Least of These
23 begin to wax in iniquity, Jacob again addresses incipient sin, seeking to nip it in the bud.
they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves, this is called proof-texting, when we seek in a text what we want to find rather than what the author is actually trying to convey. The priests of Noah did this, for which Abinadi lambasts them (Mosiah 12:25-27). Corianton tried to “excuse himself” and justify his sins (Alma 42:29-30), despite the fact that his father Alma had commanded him to not “wrest the scriptures” else they would turn to his destruction (Alma 13:20; 41:1).
23-24 David and Solomon had many wives and concubines…abominable/whoredoms, as opposed to Abraham and Jacob. Why? Because the formers’ wives were not sanctified while the latters’ wives were. How so? And how can polygamy be whoredoms if they are legal marriages? Likely the wives the Nephites were taking were natives, and marriage outside the covenant was strictly contrary to the Lord in Deuteronomy as it led to apostasy, thus the marriages would be invalid in the Lord’s eyes (Judg 11:1-2). This was the problem with many of David and Solomon’s wives (1 Kgs 11:1). They were condemned not for having plural wives per se but for having foreign ones. This would have been a concern for the Nephites with respect to the peoples around them. Jacob may be quoting from Deut 17:17, “Neither shall he [the king] multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
Endogamy is marriage within one’s group, however that may be defined, and exogamy is marriage outside it; both are attested [to] in the Bible. In the ancestral narratives, endogamy was apparently the dominant practice; for example, in Geneses 24 Abraham sends his servant back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for his son Isaac from among his own kin (see also Gen. 28:1–2, 9). Yet exogamy is also reported, as by Esau (Gen. 26:34) and Joseph (Gen. 41:45). Exogamy was practiced by the kings of Israel and Judah, such as David, few of whose marriages were endogamous (beginning with Michal, Saul’s daughter; see also 2 Sam. 3:2–5, 1 Chr. 3:1–9), Solomon, and Ahab. The Deuteronomic view of exogamy was hostile, expressly because of a fear of apostasy (Deut. 7:1–6, 1 Kgs. 11:1–8, 16.31–32) a view also found in postexilic literature (Ezra 9–10; Neh. 10:28–30, 13:23–27).16
Professor Russell Fuller, in Brant Gardner, Second Witness
25 wherefore…I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, fascinating! Jacob quotes the Lord as saying that the very reason he led Lehi out of Jerusalem was because of this very problem, so he won’t tolerate it among the Nephites!
righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph, appropriate, since Joseph was the one who ran from Potiphar’s wife (and both Lehi and Ishmael were of Joseph). Granted, that would have been fornication and this is polygamy; but in Jacob’s teaching, the latter is worse because it deprives women of their sexual agency, and NOT their sexual chastity (as that can’t be taken by another). Consensual sex, even if outside of marriage, is still consensual; while controlling who and how women marry is not.
26 I the Lord will not suffer, because this was the very reason he brought Lehi and his family out of Jerusalem (see note on v25 above).
27 one wife, the natives’ laws may have been different, but God wanted his people to live his law—the law of agency.
28 delight in the chastity of women, to be clear, the Lord delights as much in the chastity of men—let’s not overlook that. Importantly, Jacob couches his message in language the Nephite men would understand. The reality is Jacob is not talking about chastity, he’s talking about sexual agency; but that would not have resonated with them (see Diedre Green’s comment below in note for v33).
29 keep the commandments…or cursed shall be the land, this promise has been set forth by the Lord from the beginning of the Book of Mormon; but here it has specific application to treating women as true agents and not as chattel.
This clear divine pronouncement forces us to consider the possibility that the cyclical pattern of Nephite prosperity and suffering fluctuates on the basis of how women are regarded and treated within Nephite society; while these are a function of pride, it is crucial to understand that God loathes pride not only for its own sake but particularly for how it manifests as domination over others, in this case at women’s expense.
Diedre Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction
30 if I will…raise up seed, I will command my people, so Jacob leaves polygamy as an option, but only under very limited circumstances. Notably, Jacob does not indicate any successful, positive examples of it. King Noah (Mosiah 11:2) extensively taxed his people to support his wives and concubines, and his actions affected his entire community for ill. Jacob may have thrown this bone to the Nephites because some of the patriarchs practiced it, but he is not keen on it by any stretch, largely for the reasons he is teaching—it deprives women of their sexual agency.
31 I have seen the sorrow and hear the mourning of my daughters…because of the wickedness…of their husbands, and there it is—God sees and knows. President Gordon B. Hinckley once gave a General Conference talk in which he read from letters he’d received from women who were sorrowing because of the wickedness of their husbands (Our Solemn Responsibilities). That the Lord calls women “my daughters” is significant. When my children mistreat their mother, I sometimes tell them, “Stop mistreating my wife!” It changes the way they see things. The Lord doesn’t simply say, “Don’t treat your wives poorly,” but “Don’t treat my daughters poorly!”
God led God’s daughters out of Jerusalem. Jacob does not write that God led Nephi and Lehi out of Jerusalem and the women followed. This is a direct relationship between God and the women of this community. This further interrupts the larger narrative in which women play an essentially silent and passive role. God led the daughters out. Women are directly in two-way communication with God, as God hears their cries and leads them with revelation.
Fatimeh & Sallah, The BofM: For the Least of These
32 I will not suffer…the cries of the fair daughters, do I suffer it? Do I perpetrate it? How am I treating the Lord’s daughters?
33 they shall not lead away captive the daughters of my people, in what way can women be captive in their marriages? If you can’t answer that, ask the women who surround you. The Nephite men Jacob addressed likely had personal ambition for political privilege, so they sought to accumulate resources through their own efforts but also those of their wives and children—more wives and children, more wealth; more gold and silver, more wealth; more wealth, more political power and social leverage.
While men can take away women’s sexual agency, no one can take away another person’s chastity because it is determined by consent. In Jacob’s discussion of marital and sexual practices it must be the women’s agency, not their chastity, that is at stake because that is what is being compromised by their male counterparts. God values both chastity and sexual agency, and if we do not read carefully, we miss this essential part of Jacob’s message. Jacob centers agency as the major issue when he, speaking for God, pronounces that the Nephite men “shall not lead away captive the daughters of my people” (Jacob 2:33). This pronouncement expresses divine concern about women being coerced by men. Beyond implying coercion, the language further implies the commodification and possibly even trafficking of women. Whether the captivity refers to a literal physical captivity or a more figurative spiritual captivity that results from being compelled to participate in relationships one does not freely choose for oneself, it is the sin of the men, rather than that of the women, that in this instance immobilizes women from being self-determining and carrying out their own wills. The reference to chastity cannot simplistically be intended in the way that modern readers might be inclined to take it—as virginity or as being sexually exclusive with one’s spouse—because Jacob is castigating the Nephite men, rather than the women, for their infidelity while stating that something crucial is being lost by the women. He cannot call men to repentance for women’s violations of the law of chastity; however, he can, and does, call men to repentance for violating women and forcing them into sexual relationships against women’s desires. The Nephite men are robbing women of their God-given right to act for themselves, rather than to be merely acted upon (see 2 Ne. 2:16). So why does Jacob use the language of chastity here at all? Following a pattern, Jacob addresses the Nephite men according to their own value system (see Alma 18:24–28)—a rhetorical strategy he also used in his discussion of skin color. Their oppressive way of relating to others has led the Nephite men to so objectify and commodify women that at this point, an appeal to female sexual agency would probably fall on deaf ears. Yet, given that their oppressive ways include self-righteousness, the language of female sexual purity might get their attention. It is quite possible that by employing language that reflects the wayward Nephites’ constricted values, Jacob hopes that his words will register, effecting the societal change that he is divinely commissioned to catalyze.
Diedre Green, Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction
Assuming that Nephite wealth was built on the trade of manufactured items with neighboring communities and assuming that these neighbors would have practiced polygamy, Nephite traders would have immediately seen the advantages of adopting their neighbors’ successful means of enhancing production, then displaying the results in their “costly apparel.” Because these men would be following the regional marriage customs, their unions would have been seen as legal in that context but as “whoredom” because it violated Israelite law by seeking exogamous wives and because it violated Lehi’s specific injunction about plural wives….I also conjecture that Nephite polygyny involved elite men’s arranging diplomatic marriages to assure commercial or political alliances. Patriarchal societies tend to be patrilocal—that is, the woman leaves her father’s home and moves to the husband’s home. Furthermore, given degrees of kinship within which marriage is prohibited, such societies tend to seek women from other communities. While this practice would bring women into the city of Nephi, it would mean that Nephite daughters and sisters would become wives in other communities. Under these circumstances, an unwilling or frightened “daughter of my people” might easily lament her marriage as a form of captivity in a strange locale… Positioning this Book of Mormon situation in the context of the developing social-economic situation of Middle Preclassic Mesoamerica explains both the problem of “costly apparel” and the early issue of polygamy. It particularly explains why Jacob addressed both of them in the same discourse.
Brant Gardner, Second Witness
because of their tenderness, think Les Miserables when tender Fantine must sell her body to feed her child Cosette.
34 ye know that these commandments were given to our father Lehi, Lehi was the first to teach these things, though we have no record of it. Likely they were in the lost manuscript.
35 greater iniquities than the Lamanites, true but no doubt also intended to shock Jacob’s listeners. It’s revolutionary thinking and may even have put Jacob at risk. He will expound on this idea in the next chapter, but more than the specific lesson it was for the Nephites, the broader lesson for us is that there are many who surround us who live God’s laws far better than we do; and we should learn from them.
broken the hearts of your tender wives…lost the confidence of your children, because of your bad examples, it would be hard to recover from this.
sobbings of their hearts ascend up to God / the word of God…cometh down, note the sobbings go up and the word of God comes down in response.
many hearts died, pierced with deep wounds, wow, how well Jacob describes the suffering of the women and children!
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There is also a repudiation of men weaponizing intimacy here. Jacob gives a sense of the responsibility men have in these sexual relationships. Throughout history, women have borne the blame for both consensual and non-consensual sexual encounters. We blame women for what they wore, where they were, and what they said that somehow compromised them or invited men to take advantage of them. Jacob’s indictment of the men pushes up against the sexist narrative that women are inherently responsible for sexual relationships. Jacob is clear: Nephite men are responsible for their own behavior, and the way they have treated women is unacceptable.
Fatimeh & Sallah, The BofM: For the Least of These
Holy Envy 