16
The Sword of Laban
The Book of Mormon records the attempts of Nephi and his brothers, all sons of the prophet Lehi, to retrieve the Brass Plates (See #15 THE BRASS PLATES) which were being kept by a wicked military official named Laban. After a few unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the plates by Nephi and his brothers together, Nephi was elected to go alone and retrieve the plates furtively.
As recorded in 1 Nephi 4, Nephi approaches Jerusalem and the house of Laban. After finding Laban drunk and lying in the streets, the Spirit urges Nephi to slay Laban. After a few proddings, Nephi takes Laban’s sword and reluctantly kills him. Nephi kept the sword and brought it with him in his and his family’s journey to the New World.
The Book of Mormon records that the sword of Laban “was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and the blade thereof was of the most precious steel” (1 Nephi 4:9). After bringing the sword to the New World, “Nephi made many swords ‘after the manner’ of the sword of Laban (2 Ne. 5:14) and used the sword in ‘defence’ of his people (Jacob 1:10), as did King Benjamin (W of M 1:13). Benjamin later delivered the sword to his son [Mosiah] (Mosiah 1:16). The sword of Laban seems to have been preserved as a sacred object among the Nephites, as was Goliath’s sword in ancient Israel (1 Sam. 21:9).”29 The Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon (See #10 THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES: THE ONLY “DIVINE” BOOK OF MORMON EVIDENCE) were promised to see the Sword of Laban and that promise was apparently fulfilled (Doctrine & Covenants 17:1).30
There are at least ten, second-hand accounts that relate that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery found a large room in the drumlin where the Book of Mormon plates were found. In the room were many other sets of gold plates as well as the Sword of Laban hanging on the wall.31 Since the hill is a drumlin, “it is a pile of gravel scraped together by an ancient glacier. The geologic unlikelihood of a cave existing within the hill such as the one described suggests that the experience related by the various witnesses was most likely a vision, or a divine transportation to another locale (as with Nephi's experience in 1 Nephi 11꞉1). . .Given that the angel Moroni had retrieved the plates from Joseph several times previously, it is not unreasonable to assume that he was capable of transporting them to a different location than the hill in New York. As [John A.] Tvedtnes asks, ‘If they could truly be moved about, why not from Mexico, for example?’”32
Nephi’s experience in retrieving the brass plates and the sword of Laban shows us that the Lord truly “giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7) and that He is sensitive to His children that need more verification to help their faith (Doctrine & Covenants 88:118).
29Reed A. Benson, “Sword of Laban,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 5 vols. (New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1992; 2007), 4:1427, https://eom.byu.edu/index.php?title=Sword_of_Laban.
30Ibid. Citing Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, nos. 3-5, May 1882, Vol VI, Salt Lake City, 208.
31Cameron J. Packer “Cumorah’s Cave,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 13, no. 1 (2004): 50–57, 170–71, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol13/iss1/6/.
32“Question: Is there a cave in the Hill Cumorah containing the Nephite records?” FAIR, accessed January 17, 2025, https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_Is_there_a_cave_in_the_Hill_Cumorah_containing_the_Nephite_records%3F. Citing John A. Tvedtnes, "Brenton G. Yorgason, Little Known Evidences of the Book of Mormon," FARMS Review of Books 2/1 (1990): 262, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol2/iss1/30/.
