Jacob 3
People in this chapter
Jacob 2 was a hard sermon. Jacob 3 begins with the people that sermon was meant to protect. Before he says another word to the men, Jacob speaks unto you that are pure in heart, the wives and children he saw in the congregation, and he gives them promises: God will console them, plead their cause, and let them feast upon his love (vv. 1-2).
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Jacob 3:1-2He Will Console You in Your Afflictions
1But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.
Jacob speaks to those who have been hurt. If they look to God and pray with faith, He will comfort them and defend them.
2O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
The pure in heart can lift up their heads and feast upon his love, and keep feasting forever if their minds stay firm.
Jacob 3:3-10More Righteous Than You
3But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart, that are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes; and the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you, nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing, shall scourge you even unto destruction. 4And the time speedily cometh, that except ye repent they shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away the righteous out from among you.
Jacob warns the unrepentant Nephites: if they do not change, the Lamanites will overrun them and the Lord will lead the righteous away.
5Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them. 6And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people. 7Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?
Jacob tells the Nephites that the Lamanites they hate are more righteous than you, because Lamanite husbands keep the commandment of one wife.
Lamanite families loved each other. Jacob asks the Nephites: how much better are you than they?
8O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. 9Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.
Jacob commands the Nephites to stop insulting the Lamanites over their skin. The Church today disavows past theories that black skin is a sign of God's disfavor and condemns all racism.
10Wherefore, ye shall remember your children, how that ye have grieved their hearts because of the example that ye have set before them; and also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness, bring your children unto destruction, and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the last day.
Jacob reminds the fathers that their example has grieved their children's hearts and could lead them to destruction.
Jacob 3:11-14Awake from the Slumber of Death
11O my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death; and loose yourselves from the pains of hell that ye may not become angels to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death.
Jacob ends his sermon with a call to wake up. Sin is like a deadly sleep, and he pleads with his people to shake it off and escape the pains of hell.
12And now I, Jacob, spake many more things unto the people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them. 13And a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, which now began to be numerous, cannot be written upon these plates; but many of their proceedings are written upon the larger plates, and their wars, and their contentions, and the reigns of their kings. 14These plates are called the plates of Jacob, and they were made by the hand of Nephi. And I make an end of speaking these words.
Jacob taught much more than he wrote. The history and wars went on the large plates; these small ones, made by Nephi, are now called the plates of Jacob.
Research trail
Sources & further study
These references support the historical, linguistic, manuscript, and contextual notes in this chapter. Scripture remains the primary text; external sources are provided so readers can inspect the research directly.
- Race and the PriesthoodThe Church's statement that it disavows past theories that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, and that it condemns all racism, past and present. Essential background for verses 3-9.
- Pure, PurityWhat scripture means by the pure in heart, with references across the standard works.
- Repent, RepentanceThe change of mind and heart Jacob calls for in verses 3-11.
Where this echoes in Scripture
He Will Console You in Your Afflictions
- Psalm 35:1Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me.
- 1 John 2:1We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
- D&C 45:3-5Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him.The Savior describes Himself pleading for us.
- Matthew 5:8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
- 2 Nephi 9:51Feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted.Jacob's earlier invitation to feast.
More Righteous Than You
- 2 Nephi 26:33He denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free… and all are alike unto God.
- Acts 10:34-35God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him… is accepted with him.
- Alma 23:5-6As many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.The Lamanites became a blessed people (v. 6).
- Helaman 15:5-7The more part of them are in the path of their duty.Samuel the Lamanite describes his faithful people.
- Matthew 7:3-5First cast out the beam out of thine own eye.Remember your own sins first.
Awake from the Slumber of Death
- 2 Nephi 1:13O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell.Lehi's words to his sons, echoed by Jacob.
- 2 Nephi 9:10Our God… prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell.Jacob's earlier teaching on deliverance.
- Ephesians 5:14Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
- Alma 5:7He awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.What waking up looks like.