Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
Ether Chapter 1
Mosiah's translation and Moroni's abridgment follow Ether's record closely. Ether then names
twenty-nine of his ancestors, including Jared (6). "The Brother of Jared" plays an important part in
the record but, for some unexplained reason, he remains anonymous. He was "a large and a mighty
man, and . . . a man highly favored of the Lord" (8). Like Moses, the greatest of the Hebrew
prophets (Acts 3:22; John 9:28), Jared had his brother to lean on in times of stress. When the Lord
interfered with the tower building project and confounded the language of the people, they could
not understand each other. Then they were scattered abroad "upon all the face of the land and unto
every quarter of the earth" (Gen. 11:5; Mos. 12:22, 23).
Jared told his brother to "cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us" (8). The Lord had
compassion "and Jared and his brother were not confounded" (9). Then they asked God for
compassion in the same manner for their friends and their families, and this was granted.
Then Jared thought of the Lord's plan to scatter them to the four quarters of the earth, and he asked
his brother to inquire of the Lord if he were to drive them out of the land "whither we shall go"
(12). Again the Lord had compassion and told them to "gather together thy flocks, both male and
female, of every kind; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind, and thy family," and Jared
and their friends and their families (16). Then they were to go "into the valley, which is
northward" (17).
Ether 1:18 And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee into a land which is choice above
all the land of the earth.
Not only would they be led to a choice land, but "there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up
unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great
nation" (19). "There shall be none greater ... upon all the face of the earth" (20).
THEY PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY, VER. 22-67
Ether 1:23 And they did also lay snares and catch fowls of the air, and they did also prepare a
vessel, in which they did carry with them the fish of the waters;
"They did also carry with them deseret" or honeybees. This gathering occurred in the valley of
Nimrod, where "the Lord came down and talked with the Brother of Jared" from a cloud, where
He could be heard but not seen (25-27). The Lord guided them into a wilderness "where there
never had man been" (26). Here they built eight barges "in which they did cross many waters,
being directed continually by the hand of the Lord" (28).
Ether 1:30 And he had sworn in his wrath unto the Brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land
of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they
should be swept off when the fullness of his wrath should come upon them.
"When they are ripened in iniquity," they shall feel his wrath (32, 33).