Chapter Nine
Lehi Could
Not
Have Been a “Goodly Parent” in Jerusalem
God condemned every Jerusalem resident during that time!
“I, NEPHI, having been born of goodly parents, . . .”44
During the course of this study through the first twenty chapters of the writings of the Prophet Jeremiah, it will be discovered that there were no ‘good’ people in Jerusalem prior to Zedekiah’s reign. According to God’s accusations there weren’t any ‘good’ people, ‘good’ children, ‘good’ prophets, or ‘good’ priests either. If there weren’t any ‘good’ people, which allegedly would have included Lehi and his wife Sariah, Nephi’s parents, then they could not have been ‘goodly parents’ as recorded in the first verse of the Book of Mormon. Let’s look at what God had to say about the general population of Jerusalem in this chapter, and we will consider the children, prophets, and priests specifically in chapters ten and eleven.
Remember that the prophecies of Jeremiah began during the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign and ultimately reached the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign ( the beginning point of the Book of Mormon according to First Nephi 1:4 ) in Jeremiah chapter twenty-one. Chapters one through twenty of the book of Jeremiah cover that rough thirty-year period prior to Zedekiah’s reign. Although we cannot specifically date each chapter, there is a multitude of information that can be considered. Pay close attention to how many chapters are imbedded with verses dealing with the sins of the people. Notice also how many times God includes ‘ALL’ the people or ‘every one’. ‘ALL’ the people would have included Nephi and his family had they truly existed in Jerusalem as Joseph Smith recorded.
Verse references will precede each verse so that readers may understand how each verse fits in the chronology of the first thirty years of Jeremiah’s prophecies.
Quotation marks will not be used although each verse is a direct quote from the Authorized King James Version (KJV) Bible. Highlighting and underlining were added by this author for emphasis.
Jer. 2:29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.
Jer. 5:1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. (God did not pardon the city! This would indicate Jeremiah did not find one man that sought truth and executed judgment, including Lehi or Nephi.)
( This next verse includes every age group of people that lived in Jerusalem .)
Jer. 6:11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
Jer. 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Jer. 8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Jer. 8:6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
Jer. 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.
Jer. 4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer. 5:7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
Jer. 5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.
Jer. 6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jer. 6:12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Jer. 6:28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
Jer. 6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
Jer. 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
Jer. 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer. 7:2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
Jer. 7:3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer. 8:9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
Jer. 8:10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Jer. 9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Jer. 9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
Jer. 9:4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
Jer. 9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Jer. 9:6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
Jer. 9:25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Jer. 9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
Jer. 11:6 Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.
Jer. 11:7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
Jer. 11:8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
Jer. 11:9 And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer. 11:10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
Jer. 12:12 The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
Jer. 13:13 Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Jer. 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
Jer. 15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Jer. 15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
Jer. 15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
Jer. 15:10 . . . every one of them doth curse me. (Jeremiah’s lament)
Jer. 16:12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
Jer. 16:17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
Jer. 17:19 Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer. 17:20 And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
Jer. 18:11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer. 18:12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Jer. 20:4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Did the reader notice how many times in the first twenty chapters of the book of Jeremiah God addressed ‘all the inhabitants’, or ‘every one’, or ‘ye all’? Some may try to argue that these verses do not include Nephi or his father and family, but God included ‘everyone’ multiple times! Had Lehi dwelt in Jerusalem “in all his days” as First Nephi 1:4 states, then all of these verses condemn him as corrupt and evil before God. Jeremiah may have recorded it, but we must remember that the message was God's! God condemned ALL of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during that time because of their evil. Chapter fourteen will show that if Lehi had truly existed when recorded, God would have labeled him and his family as idol worshippers.
We saw above in Jeremiah 13:13-14 that God had no intentions of sparing anybody from Jerusalem. This indictment alone proves Joseph Smith’s story in First Nephi to be false. God did not warn Lehi to flee Jerusalem with his family. Had he truly existed in Jerusalem at that time God would have deported the family to Babylon or left them in Jerusalem to be punished along with everybody else.
Through the Prophet Jeremiah God said there were NO good people in Jerusalem for at least thirty years prior to the start of the book of First Nephi. If there were no good people, then there could not have been any ‘goodly parents’! The first sentence in the BkM cannot be not true, yet there is another statement within the very first verse that is also untrue. Chapter ten will consider Nephi’s alleged self-proclamation of ‘having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days’. Jeremiah’s record of God’s indictments against the residents of Jerusalem reveals that there were no good children in Jerusalem. The Prophet Jeremiah was even prohibited from marrying and having any children in view of God’s punishment about to be poured upon those who did exist. Let’s consider the not -highly-favored-of-the-Lord Jerusalem children next.
#44 1 Nephi 1:1, BkM
