ill
prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my
commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my
commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye
shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

1 Nephi 17:14
14 Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in
the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and
that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I
did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.

1 Nephi 17:15
15 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of
the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and
diligence.

1 Nephi 17:16
16 And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I
did molten out of the rock.

1 Nephi 17:17
17 And when my brethren saw that I was about to build a ship,
they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool,
for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also
thinketh that he can cross these great waters.

1 Nephi 17:18
18 And thus my brethren did complain against me, and were
desirous that they might not labor, for they did not believe that
I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was
instructed of the Lord.

1 Nephi 17:19
19 And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, was exceedingly
sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts; and now when
they saw that I began to be sorrowful they were glad in their
hearts, insomuch that they did rejoice over me, saying: We knew
that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were
lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so
great a work.

1 Nephi 17:20
20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish
imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of
Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many
years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they
have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things,
save it were death; and it would have been better that they had
died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered
these afflictions.

1 Nephi 17:21
21 Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness,
which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of
our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy.

1 Nephi 17:22
22 And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem
were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments
of the Lo