Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/287

Rh So greatly was he beloved by his subjects that the people called the next king, Nephi the second, the next, Nephi the third, and so on. He had been their prophet, priest and king; father, friend and guide; protector, teacher and leader; next to God, their all in all.  NEPHI, THE SON OF HELAMAN. In Nephi we have one of the greatest prophets that ever trod the earth, or to whom the God of our salvation revealed His glorious will. He lived during the greater portion of the first century before Christ, and disappeared from the knowledge of mankind but a short time before the advent of the Messiah in Bethlehem. He is first referred to in the Book of Mormon (B. C. 44) as the elder of Helaman's two sons, Lehi being the younger. These two brothers appear to have been inseparable during their life; they are almost always mentioned as associated in the great and oft-times perilous labors of the ministry undertaken for the salvation of either Nephites or Lamanites. We have no information with regard to the time of Nephi's birth, but when his father died, in the year B. C. 39, he succeeded him as chief judge, the duties of which office he filled with wisdom and justice for about nine years, when, owing to the wickedness of the people, he resigned that office, and Cezoram was chosen by the people in his stead (B. C. 30).

The years that Nephi judged his people are some of the darkest in Nephite history. Owing to their great pride and iniquity, the Lord left them to themselves, and they became weak like unto the Lamanites, man for man. When war was declared, the latter, being much the more numerous carried everything before them. In vain the Nephites under Moronihah struggled for their homes and their liberties. They were forced back by the hordes of the Lamanites from city to city, from land to land. Not a place could be found in 